The Transpartisan Times: SB 1070: High court has already decided, but process maintains suspense

Friday, June 22, 2012

SB 1070: High court has already decided, but process maintains suspense

Minneapolis protest against Arizona immigrant law SB 1070 (Photo credit: Fibonacci Blue)

The U.S. Supreme Court might issue its opinion on Arizona's controversial immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, as early as Monday. Or next Thursday. Or, heck, maybe sometime in July.

Despite what you may have heard, nobody knows for sure.

So, as they have for weeks, folks with a stake or keen interest in the ruling -- politicians, immigration advocates and, yes, journalists -- will fire up their computers at exactly 7 a.m. Arizona time to see if today's the day.

So what's the holdup?But here's the thing: The Supreme Court already has decided the case, and they likely did so two months ago.

There's plenty of politics involved in writing, negotiating and tweaking that opinion. And while nobody -- or at least nobody willing to talk openly -- knows what's happening with the SB 1070 case behind the Supreme Court's closed doors, we do have a general understanding of the justices' process.