Th Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to a ruling by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals that ultimately upholds two local immigration enforcement ordinances enacted by Fremont, Nebraska. One ordinance requires all businesses to use E-Verify, and the other requires all renters to obtain an occupancy license that can only be issued to U.S. citizens or foreign citizens who are in the country legally.
"The Supreme Court let stand an emphatic decision in the Eighth Circuit that rejected every argument on the merits that the ACLU and MALDEF threw at the Ordinance," said attorney Kris Kobach. "The Ordinance requires all businesses in the city to use E-Verify and it requires all tenants to obtain an occupancy license. In cases where the tenant is not a US citizen, the city then checks the aliens immigration status with the federal government, and if the alien is unlawfully present, revokes the license."
The E-Verify provision is a affirmation of the Supreme Court's ruling in 2011, Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, where the Court determined that states can pass their own mandatory E-Verify laws. It was the rental ordinance that was under the most scrutiny, but survived through the courts despite an aggressive challenge by the ACLU and MALDEF.
The E-Verify ordinance went into effect in March 2013. The rental ordinance went into effect earlier this year.
