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Supreme Court Declines to Hear Challenge to Arizona Immigration Bail Ruling

Case: Lopez-Valenzuela, et al. v. Maricopa County, et al.
June 1, 2015 1:15 pm
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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court today announced it would not hear a challenge to an appeals court ruling striking down Arizona’s Proposition 100, which denied bail to people accused of being undocumented immigrants. The American Civil Liberties Union had successfully challenged the law as unconstitutional.

Cecillia Wang, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said:

“Today’s order from the Supreme Court lets our victory over Proposition 100 stand. Arizona officials who tried to strip people of a bail hearing and the presumption of innocence have reached the end of the road. Laws that are driven by fear-mongering rather than facts are bad policy and violate everyone’s civil liberties.”

The order is at: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/lopez-valenzuela-v-maricopa-county-supreme-court-denial-cert-petition

More information about this case, Lopez-Valenzuela v. Maricopa County, is at: https://www.aclu.org/cases/immigrants-rights/lopez-valenzuela-et-al-v-maricopa-county-et-al

Lopez-Valenzuela, et al. v. Maricopa County, et al.

After a long legal battle the ACLU, on behalf of plaintiffs in Lopez Valenzuela v. Maricopa County prevailed by blocking further implementation of a law that for years did not allow judges to even consider bail for criminal defendants who were suspected of having "entered or remained in the United States illegally," and which applied to most state felony charges in Arizona, including relatively minor crimes such as shoplifting and possessing a phony ID. As a result of Proposition 100, which amended the state constitution, state courts were required to jail countless individuals who posed no risk of flight or danger to others.

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

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