A Great Day for Human Rights and Sensible Law Enforcement

By Frank Knaack, ACLU of Texas Legal Advocacy Coordinator Human rights organizations, including the ACLU of Texas, opposed it. Senior law enforcement officials in Texas opposed it. And now, a federal judge blocked it. The next question: will Arizona, a state with a similar budget crisis to that of Texas, now cease its assault on the Constitution or continue to waste its scarce taxpayer dollars defending its unconstitutional and discriminatory racial profiling law (SB 1070)? We hope the former prevails … but as usual, hope will probably not be enough. As Arizona’s government ponders its next move, some of our legislators continue to assert that Texas needs a similar law. Maybe their cable and Internet are down and their newspaper delivery person is on vacation? With a multi billion dollar budget crisis awaiting the 82nd Texas Legislature, there is no time for our legislators to engage in Arizona style shenanigans, especially shenanigans that make our communities less safe and violate our basic fundamental values. In addition to troubling statements from some of our legislators, our Attorney General, as we wrote last week, officially dragged Texas into Arizona’s mess when he filed a legal brief in support of SB 1070. On Wednesday, the values that make our country great prevailed. But, unless we continue this fight Wednesday may become the exception.