GREAT NEWS: Alabama's Racial Profiling Bill BLOCKED!!!

Washington (CNN) -- A federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of a tough immigration law in Alabama on Monday. Opponents of the measure -- including state church leaders, the U.S. Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union-- had asked U.S. Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn to stop the law, which was scheduled to go into effect Thursday. State officials argue the law would help Alabama and not violate civil rights.

In her two-page order, Judge Blackburn said there was not enough time before Thursday to address all the legal arguments from various parties over the law's constitutionality. "It is hereby ordered that Act 2011-535 is temporarily enjoined, and may not be executed or enforced," wrote Blackburn.

The Alabama law requires that police "attempt to determine the immigration status of a person who they SUSPECT (Racial Profiling) is an unauthorized alien of this country," according to an Alabama House of Representatives fact sheet. That provision is similar to other laws aiming to crack down on illegal immigration passed by other state legislatures over the past year.

But the Alabama law also includes more expansive measures, including requiring the state to check immigration status of students in public schools. Blackburn made clear her order does not reflect on the merits of either side's legal arguments. She ordered both the state and the law's opponents to file further legal briefs in the case, and said her injunction will remain in place at least until September 29.

Further appeals to higher federal courts could prevent the law from going into effect for months, even years.
During a hearing last week in Birmingham, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center argued the public-school portion of the law is unconstitutional.

Earlier this month, leaders from the Episcopal, Methodist and Catholic churches of Alabama sued the state's governor, its attorney general and a district attorney over the law, known as HB 56. One attorney representing the bishops said in court that representatives of the church did not want to become immigration agents, and that the law would make church officials targets for ministering to illegal immigrants. A U.S. Department of Justice attorney also argued the federal government, not individual states, should control immigration enforcement.

Alabama Immigration Law: Obama Administration Files Lawsuit To Block Measure

WASHINGTON(Reuters) - The Obama administration Monday sued to block enforcement of Alabama's new immigration law, widely considered to be the toughest measure in the United States to try to crack down on illegal immigrants. The law, known as H.B. 56, was signed by Republican Governor Robert Bentley in June and is due to take effect on Sept. 1. Civil rights groups brought a separate lawsuit challenging the law about a month ago.

``If allowed to go into effect, H.B. 56's enforcement scheme will conflict with and undermine the federal government's careful balance of immigration enforcement priorities and objectives,'' administration lawyers said. ``The scheme will cause the detention and harassment of authorized visitors, immigrants, and citizens who do not have or carry identification documents specified by the statute, or who otherwise will be swept into the ambit of H.B. 56's enforcement-at-all-costs approach,'' according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Alabama. The administration argued that federal law preempted the state from adopting its own immigration regime and would interfere with the federal immigration system. There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States... Attempts to overhaul federal immigration policy have gone nowhere in the U.S. Congress. Besides Alabama, Georgia, Arizona, Utah and Indiana are defending new immigration laws in federal court. The Obama administration successfully sued to block Arizona's tough law last year.

``Today's action makes clear that setting immigration policy and enforcing immigration laws is a national responsibility that cannot be addressed through a patchwork of state immigration laws,'' Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. Alabama's law requires public schools to determine, by reviewing birth certificates or sworn affidavits, the legal residency status of students upon enrollment. Police must also detain someone they suspect of being in the United States illegally if the person cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason. That is similar to the Arizona law blocked by the courts from taking effect. The Alabama law also would be a crime to knowingly transport or harbor someone who is in the country illegally.

The law also imposes penalties on businesses that knowingly employ someone without legal resident status, and a company's business license could be suspended or revoked. A similar Arizona law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in May.The Alabama law also requires businesses to use a database called E-Verify to confirm the immigration status of new employees.