A U.S. District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to give Oregon driver cards to illegal aliens notwithstanding a voter referendum to the contrary. The state in 2013 enacted Senate Bill 833, which authorized those driver cards, but 66% of Oregon voters chose to overturn the law by defeating a November 2014 ballot referendum.
The lawsuit argued the voter referendum, known as Measure 88, violated the constitutional rights of a group of illegal aliens by “arbitrarily and irrationally” excluding them from driving privileges. It also argued the state’s refusal to issue driver cards was unconstitutional because immigration regulation is a federal prerogative and “is not a legitimate state interest.”
But District Court Judge Ann Aiken ruled she did not have the authority to require Oregon to issue driver cards to illegal aliens. She wrote, “Under the Oregon Constitution, Oregon voters retain the right of referendum to approve or reject legislation enacted by the Oregon legislature…When a referendum is invoked, the act of the legislature then becomes merely a measure to be voted on by the people, and, if the people vote in the affirmative, the measure becomes an act; if they vote in the negative, the measure fails…(As such no existing) law authorizes the state to grant driver cards.”
Oregonians for Immigration Reform, which gathered the signatures necessary to place Measure 88 on the ballot, lauded the decision. “Today, the court has dismissed the meritless and frivolous case,” a group statement said. “Nearly a million voters said ‘no’ — and now the Court is standing with us. No driver cards for those who can’t prove they are legally present in the country.”
Read more in The Register-Guard.
