TPMMuckraker Bob Driscoll
Immigration
Could Another Bybee Memo Help Preserve Arizona Immigration Law?
Zachary Roth | May 18, 2010, 10:00AM
Jay Bybee
A coalition of civil and immigrants rights groups has filed suit against Arizona's draconian immigration law. But efforts to challenge the law could be complicated by a memo written by one of the Bush Justice Department lawyers who also drafted some of the key opinions greenlighting torture.
Fourteen groups -- among them the ACLU of Arizona, the NAACP, and MALDEF -- filed the suit yesterday. They charge, among other things, that Arizona's law violates the federal Supremacy Clause by trying to bypass federal immigration law, and that it deprives minorities of their equal protection rights.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (33) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: ACLU, Arizona, Bob Driscoll, Immigration, Jay Bybee, Joe Arpaio, Justice Department, NAACP, Torture
Joe Arpaio
In Face-Saving Move, Arpaio Withdraws Lawsuit Against Supervisors
Zachary Roth | March 12, 2010, 1:54PM
Sheriff Joe Arpaio
In what looks like a last-ditch effort to save face, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has dropped the lawsuit that had accused local county supervisors and others of being part of a criminal enterprise, saying the U.S. Justice Department has agreed to look into the allegations.
At a press conference yesterday, the hardline anti-illegal-immigration sheriff and his allies -- county prosecutor Andrew Thomas, and Robert Driscoll, the former Bush DOJ lawyer hired last year by the sheriff's office -- maintained that the move represented a "victory," because all they were seeking was a full investigation of the allegations, something, they say, that the Justice Department's Public Integrity section has pledged to conduct.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (6) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: Andrew Thomas, Bob Driscoll, Immigration, Joe Arpaio, Justice Department
Joe Arpaio
Arpaio Turns to Former Bush DOJ Official To Stymie Federal Probe
Zachary Roth | December 14, 2009, 11:12AM
Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Robert Driscoll
Sheriff Joe Arpaio has turned to a heavy-hitting former Bush Justice Department official and veteran Washington lawyer to help thwart a federal civil-rights probe of his controversial law-enforcement tactics.
Since March, investigators with DOJ's Civil Rights Division have been looking into allegations of racial profiling and related issues in connection with Arpaio's enforcement of immigration laws. Between 2004 and 2007, Arpaio reportedly had 2,700 law suits filed against his office -- 50 times the number of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston combined.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (28) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)Topics: Bob Driscoll, DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, FBI, Immigration, Joe Arpaio, Justice Department, Michael Elston, U.S. Attorneys
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