Court Seems Fine With Arizona Immigration Law

Today the Supreme Court heard the final arguments in the case over Arizona's controversial immigration law, and it's not looking good for the Obama administration. Justices seemed decidedly skeptical about the Justice Department's central argument that the law impinged on the federal government's power to control immigration, the Washington Post reports. "What could possibly be wrong," John Roberts asked, with having police check detainees' immigration status, and pass the information to the federal government?

Antonin Scalia questioned the solicitor general about whether a state could "defend its borders." Even Sonia Sotomayor said that the government's argument was "not selling." But the justices seemed critical about individual parts of Arizona's law—particularly the criminal penalties it imposed on immigrants who seek work, penalties greater than federal law allows. Roberts also made clear from the start that the court wasn't considering whether or not the law would lead to racial profiling. (More Sonia Sotomayor stories.)