Uncivil Rights
A lot of fervor and controversy has swirled over Arizona’s passage of a new immigration statute which authorizes lawsuits by “any state resident” against any official or agency of the state “or its political subdivisions” that adopts any policy “that limits or restricts the enforcement of federal immigration laws . . . to less than the full extent permitted by federal law [sic].” Not only are daily penalties provided for, but the real twist is that the resident who brings the suit shall be entitled to recover costs incurred in bringing the lawsuit, including attorney’s fees.
For more information and a commentary on the penalty/fee shifting aspects of this new statute, see a May 11, 2010 post in The Huffington Post by Steven P. Croley, a law professor at the University of Michigan Law School.