Judicial Watch supports law banning illegals from soliciting for jobs on street

Judicial Watch supports law banning illegals from soliciting for jobs on street corners

The public-interest group Judicial Watch has filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief supporting a law that bans illegal immigrants from seeking work on city streets in Redondo Beach, California.

In April 2006, U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall ruled that the ordinance, first implemented in 1987, violated the illegal aliens' First Amendment right to free speech, and issued an injunction preventing police from enforcing the law. But Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton contends the judge misapplied the First Amendment in his decision.

"This federal court mistakenly applied the regulations or the constitutional scrutiny that courts apply when they look at the regulation of political speech, which obviously is quite higher," Fitton explains, "but commercial speech asking people to hire you, advertising -- that sort of stuff is regulated all the time."

The Judicial Watch leader argues it is unlawful for illegal immigrants to work in the U.S., so he hopes the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will overturn the decision and allow the city to enforce the ordinance. "It served in many ways to address the issue of illegal day labor, where you have individuals, most of whom are illegal aliens, soliciting work on street corners and parking lots," he says. The U.S. Constitution, he says, does not protect that right for individuals who are in the country illegally.

But Fitton warns that one never knows what happens when a case is appealed before the Ninth Circuit. "You can get some pretty terrible decisions, and sometimes they do the right thing," he acknowledges. "[But] we're always hopeful -- we're eternal optimists, and hope springs eternal. We always hope the judges will do the right thing in the end."