Court Upholds Right To Solicit Work in Arizona

Maintains bar on anti-immigrant measure

PHOENIX – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today ruled that provisions of Arizona's racial profiling law that criminalized the solicitation of work should remain blocked. The court found that the provisions in SB 1070 likely violated day laborers' First Amendment right to solicit work on public streets.

Today's opinion reaffirms that the freedom to seek work is a constitutionally protected right. The decision also recognizes that the explicit intent of the anti-day labor provisions of SB 1070 was to drive immigrants from the state of Arizona – not, as the state had argued in court, to preserve traffic safety.