On May 3, 2011, a coalition of immigrant rights groups and individual immigrants filed a class action lawsuit against the State of Utah in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, challenging the state’s immigration enforcement law, House Bill 497 (HB 497). The plaintiffs, represented by the state and national ACLU, the National Immigration Law Center, and private counsel, brought suit under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983; the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201; and state law, claiming that the law was unconstitutional. Specifically, the plaintiffs claimed that HB 497, in requiring state and local law enforcement to check the identification of all people they stop, arrest or detain and ascertain whether they are in the country lawfully; allowing them to make warrantless arrests on “reasonable suspicion” that a person is an alien who is (1) subject to a removal order by an immigration court, (2) subject to an immigration detainer request, or (3) charged or convicted in another state with one or more “aggravated felonies;” and criminalizing the act of encouraging or inducing illegal immigrants to come to, enter or reside in Utah, is preempted under the Supremacy Clause and in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. Plaintiffs sought a declaration of the law’s unconstitutionality and an injunction barring enforcement of the law before it came into effect on May 10, 2011.

(In passing HB 497, Utah became the first state to follow the lead of Arizona in enacting aggressive immigration-related laws at the state level; Indiana, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina were soon to follow. For the case challenging the Arizona’s SB 1070, see United States v. Arizona [IM-AZ-0015]; for the case challenging Indiana's SEA 590, see Buquer v. City of Indianapolis [IM-IN-0002]; for the case challenging Georgia’s HB 87, see Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights v. Deal [IM-GA-0007]; for cases challenging Alabama’s HB 56, see United States v. Alabama [IM-AL-0005], Hispanic Interest Coalition v. Bentley [IM-AL-0006], and Parsley v. Bentley [IM-AL-0007]; and for cases challenging South Carolina’s Act 69, see Lowcountry Immigration Coalition v. Haley [IM-SC-0001] and United States v. South Carolina [IM-SC-0002].)

On May 6, 2011, plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction. After a hearing on May 10, the District Court (Judge Clark Waddoups) issued a temporary restraining order on May 11, barring enforcement of HB 497 pending further order of the court and giving parties time to brief the court regarding the merits of plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. Utah Coalition of La Raza v. Herbert, No. 2:11–cv–00401, 2011 WL 7143098 (D. Utah May 11, 2011).

Over the course of the summer, various amicus curiae briefs were filed in support of plaintiffs, including those by the governments of Mexico and various Central and South American countries.

On August 1, 2011, plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification.

On November 22, 2011, the federal government filed a separate lawsuit challenging the Utah law solely on preemption grounds. See United States v. Utah, No. (D. Utah). It was consolidated with this case on November 28, and on December 15, the Department of Justice filed its own motion for a preliminary injunction.

Rather than deciding on any of the motions before it, on February 21, 2012, the District Court (Judge Waddoups) declared that it would refrain from making any rulings until the Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Arizona [IM-AZ-0015], but confirmed that the restraining order would continue until it ruled on the pending motions for preliminary injunctions.

As of the date of this summary, the District Court is still waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision.

Christopher Schad - 06/20/2012


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