The Associated Press reports that the most controversial provision of Arizona's law won't take effect until July 20. The U.S. Supreme Court told a lower court on Tuesday that the effective date could be pushed back further if the Obama administration seeks a rehearing. The Supreme Court overturned three provisions of the Arizona law but upheld the requirement that police check the immigration status of individuals they stop for other reasons. Opponents of the law are expected to ask a judge to put the requirement on hold while they argue that the law cannot be enforced without racially profiling individuals.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jQE5OWsQmfUpYYi4
kEtOtlU295LQ?docId=913da0f632fd42449f4dc86a2c038792

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The Boston Herald reports that federal officials have adopted actions aimed at streamlining federal immigration courts. The changes were proposed by the Administrative Conference of the United States, an independent federal agency that provides nonpartisan legal advice to government agencies. The conference worked with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for over a year, searching for ways to make immigration courts more "efficient and fair." Thirty-seven recommendations were examined in order to address more than 300,000 pending cases. Most of the recommendations focused on whether foreign-born individuals charged with violating immigration law should be removed from the U.S. or allowed to stay here and how to address the shortage of judges.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/20120628feds_look_to
_streamline_backlogged_immigration_courts/srvc=home&position=recent

http://azdailysun.com/news/national/immigration-backlog-at-record-high/article_630468e9-fa86-5a31-a303-eb834f3bdfd8.html

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The Associated Press reports that lawsuits challenging Alabama's and Georgia's immigration laws went back to a federal appeals court Friday. Attorneys on both sides asked judges to reconsider the laws in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling. The state of Georgia argued that its law should be upheld based on the Supreme Court ruling of the Arizona law. While Alabama admitted that parts of its law, the parts similar to the Arizona provisions, are blocked by the Supreme Court decision, the state argued that other sections should be allowed for implementation, including a provision that requires public schools to check students' citizenship status. Opponents of the laws in both states asserted that lawmakers overstepped their authority in passing laws that interfere with federal powers.

The Supreme Court ruling upheld the provision of Arizona's law that requires police to check the immigration status of those they stop for other reasons. It overturned the other three sections that would require all immigrants to obtain and carry registration papers, make it a state crime for illegal immigrants to seek work or have a job, and allow police to arrest suspected illegal immigrants without warrants. Parts of the Arizona law were struck down because they were the responsibility of the federal government, not the state. While challenges to Alabama's and Georgia's laws focus on the same issue, the states argue that the private parties that are challenging the laws don't have the authority to argue against them on the grounds of federal pre-emption.

http://www.enewscourier.com/local/x1501703718/Ala-Ga-immigration-laws-back-to-appeals-court

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Reuters reported that a federal judge in South Carolina revisited his order to block parts of the state's immigration law, two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the Arizona law. In December, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel blocked a section of South Carolina's state law that requires police to check the immigration status of individuals they stop for other reasons. After the Supreme Court upheld a similar aspect of Arizona's law, the judge said he would revisit his ruling from December. South Carolina is one of the five states, including Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, and Utah, that modeled their laws after Arizona's immigration enforcement laws. South Carolina's law also provides for a special state police Immigration Enforcement Unit with unique uniforms and marked cars. The state police began hiring and training officers in January and were prepared to start enforcing the "legal stop" provision this month if the injunction was lifted.

However, Fox News Latino reports that U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel decided not to lift his injunction and the decision means that South Carolina police will not be able to question the immigration status of people they arrest or detain for various violations. Gergel says that he does not have the jurisdiction to alter his decision of last year because South Carolina appealed his injunction before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which now has to make a decision or return to the case and reconsider it. Gergel also ordered the state to deliver a report about the negotiations that have been carried out with federal immigration authorities, regarding the training of police under Program 287(g), which permits state and local authorities to enforce federal laws.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-09/business/sns-rt-usa-immigrationscarolinal2e8i98vi-20120709_1_attorney-general-alan-wilson-immigration-law-immigration-status

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/07/10/aspects-s-carolina-immigration-law-remain-blocked/

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