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The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for and against Arizona’s controversial immigration law SB1070 yesterday, two years and two days after it was signed into law by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. The Justices listened to 8o minutes of oral argument from attorney’s representing both sides of Arizona vs. the United States. Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from the case in December due to her previous position as solicitor general under President Obama during the national furor over the law, leaving only eight justices to issue a ruling that will have a major impact on the future of immigration law throughout the nation.

Following the passage of SB1070 in 2010 Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Utah, and Indiana passed similarly tough immigration laws, most of which face legal challenges. At the close of arguments yesterday observers felt the Justices were leaning toward allowing at least some of SB1070’s controversial provisions to stand after an appeals court enjoined them in 2010 pending the higher courts’ review. At one point during the arguments liberal Justice Sonya Sotomayor told the attorney representing the government that one of his arguments was, “not selling.” At another, swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy seemed to agree that unauthorized immigration caused “social and economic disruption.”

The Supreme Court will rule on four provisions: the requirement that local law enforcement check the citizenship status of people they stop for any offense; the legalization of arrest without a warrant of anyone suspected of being in the country illegally; the establishment of a state crime for undocumented people to seek work; and establishing a state crime to prosecute undocumented immigrants while requiring non-citizens to carry immigration documents to present upon demand. The Obama administration is arguing that Arizona’s law infringes on the powers of Congress and the executive branch to, respectively, make and implement immigration law. The court may strike down some provisions while upholding others.

GUEST: Roberto Rodriguez, a professor in the Department of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona