Attorney David Selden on Russell Pearce's SB 1070
As I previously blogged, state Senator Russell Pearce's police state bill SB 1070 is going to the floor of the House today for COW and a possible third read. Pearce's arguments for it are filled with half-truths and racist shibboleths, as he demonstrated recently on a Channel 12 news show.Real lawmen, like Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden oppose it, as do numerous organizations, from the Catholic Church and the Arizona Interfaith Network, to businesspersons, municipalities and the ACLU.
In this video by Dennis Gilman, Phoenix attorney David Selden describes how the bill is a huge boondoggle, which will line the pockets of nativist lawyers such as Kris Kobach, the guy being paid $300 per hour to advise Sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies on immigration law.
Selden explains the origins of Pearce's so-called "civil rights provision" in the bill, which is not a civil rights provision at all and would actually would encourage racial profiling. He further points out that the language of that provision goes back to the segregationists of the 1960s, who sought to block the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
There are a host of reasons Pearce's bill should be rejected outright, from the practical to the moral. Whether Pearce will be able to bully his bill through the House despite all of these, we should know by the day's end.