Posted on 04/21/2009 8:24:00 AM PDT by stan_sipple
A judge has ruled that residents of Fremont can vote on a proposal to bar anyone in the city from hiring or renting to illegal immigrants.
Dodge County District Judge John Samson on Monday dismissed the city of Fremont’s claim that it can’t legally enact the proposed ordinance because it is pre-empted by federal law, among other arguments.
Samson wrote that he didn’t have jurisdiction to rule on the matter unless the voters first approve the initiative.
Petitioners turned in more than 3,100 valid signatures to force a special election on the proposal, which is similar to one the Fremont City Council rejected last summer.
“I think the law was always on the initiative petitioners’ side in the first place,” said Kris Kobach, the Kansas City, Mo.-based attorney representing the petition organizers.
The city could appeal the ruling. A message left late Monday for Fremont City Attorney Dean Skokan was not immediately returned. State law requires that the special election be held within 60 days of the date the clerk verified the signatures — in this case, March 25. It wasn’t immediately clear if the lawsuit could let the city delay, and the city clerk couldn’t be reached Monday evening.
The city also argued that the proposed ordinance isn’t fit for the initiative process because it addresses several subjects. The proposal includes provisions against “harboring” and hiring illegal immigrants.
Samson ruled that the subjects have “a natural and necessary connection with each other, and together are part of one general subject.”
The proposed ordinance has stirred strong opinions in the eastern Nebraska city of 25,000. Fremont is among a handful of Nebraska cities that have seen marked demographic changes primarily because of Hispanic work forces at meatpacking plants.
Supporters of the local measures say they’re needed to make up for what they see as lax enforcement by federal officials.
Opponents say they fear such legislation could fuel discrimination and spur costly legal challenges for the city.
Ping!
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