AZ SB 1070 and “Texas v. Certain Named and Unnamed Alien Children” (Plyler v. Doe)

The State of Arizona has made a law that the State itself cannot lawfully follow, even before any suits get to a court of law.

In 1982 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public school districts cannot deny education to children who are in the U.S. illegally. The Supreme Court based this decision, in Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982), on the fact that the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause provides certain rights to unlawful immigrants as well as lawful immigrants and U.S. citizens.

In 2010, Arizona passed SB 1070, which makes it a crime in the state of Arizona to transport an “illegal alien” or to harbor an “illegal alien” in any building.

The contradiction is clear. Under the Supreme Court’s ruling, a public school district must allow a child who is an unlawful immigrant to attend school. This presumably includes busing the child to the school. But under SB 1070, any school which does allow an unlawful immigrant into its buildings or on its buses is breaking State law.

The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides that federal laws and U.S. Supreme Court holdings are the “Supreme Law of the Land,” and any state law that it not in accordance with federal laws is unconstitutional and void. Therefore, for the reasons shown above, this provision of SB 1070 is patently unconstitutional.