The American Bar Association has filed [1] their second amicus brief in suits against the new Arizona immigration law. Last month they filed a brief in support of the lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union; the ACLU is directly collaborating on a related matter with the Mexican government and that same government has also been allowed to file an amicus brief in support of the ACLU suit. The latest ABA brief supports the suit brought by the Department of Justice.

The same populist force behind the crackdown on illegal immigrants in Arizona – which has led to numerous allegations and lawsuits concerning racial profiling – has brought backlash against those challenging the Arizona legislation.

Lamm said that “many of those (populist) reactions have been very visceral.”

The ABA ordinarily does not file friend-of-the-court briefs at the trial level and indeed has done so only nine times in the past.

Similarly, Lamm told reporters today that the Justice Department generally refrains from weighing in at the trial level, but does so in extraordinary cases. The extraordinary nature of Arizona's law is what prompted the ABA to speak up, she said.

In 2006, the ABA held a meeting featuring amnesty superstars, but if anyone has more solid reasons why they're actually doing this please leave a comment.

[1] abajournal.com/news/article/
aba_to_file_second_ariz._immigration_law_brief