US states can shut firms with illegals

The top US court in a 5-3 decision upheld Arizona's 2007 law, saying the state was within its rights under a 1986 federal immigration reform measure.

The ruling comes amid a legal battle on another Arizona law that took effect last July and which makes it a crime to be in the state, which borders Mexico, without proper immigration papers.

In Thursday's decision, the court cited the federal Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which preempts state or local law imposing civil or criminal sanctions other than through licensing and similar laws on firms that employ, recruit, or refer unauthorized aliens for employment.

The law "expressly reserves to the states the authority to impose sanctions on employers hiring unauthorized workers, through licensing and similar laws," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

"It uses the federal government's own definition of 'unauthorized alien,' it relies solely on the federal government's own determination of who is an unauthorized alien, and it requires Arizona employers to use the federal government's own system for checking employee status."

The US Chamber of Commerce, backed by President Barack Obama's administration, had sought to invalidate the law in the courts.

Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from the case because the government made filings against Arizona when she was solicitor general at the Justice Department.

Roberts was joined in the majority by conservative Justices Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, and by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is seen as a swing vote. Liberal-leaning Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.

The US government has filed a separate suit against Arizona in a bid to block the 2010 law, which requires local police who are not federal agents responsible for immigration matters to determine whether people are in the country illegally.

That law was slammed by Obama's administration as abusive and divisive.

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