Legal Commentary

LAPD Policy Banning Citizenship Inquiries Withstands Challenge

By TChris

The Los Angeles Police Department has a "longstanding police policy that prohibits officers from initiating contact with people for the sole purpose of learning their immigration status." That policy is consistent with the belief that police officers should not accost individuals to seek information without a more legitimate reason than nosiness. The policy also protects individuals from police inquiries that are based on officers' assumption about national origins.

The frequently misguided organization Judicial Watch got it wrong again in a lawsuit it filed to free LAPD from that self-imposed restraint. Judicial Watch argued that "the city should not be using taxpayer money to enforce the policy, saying the order blocked cooperation between the local police and federal immigration agents." Wrong.

Judge Rolf M. Treu of Los Angeles Superior Court granted a motion from the city and the American Civil Liberties Union for a summary judgment to throw the suit out, arguing that Mr. Sturgeon was unable to show that the order violated federal law or impeded immigration officials from communicating with the police.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).