Court weighs Arizona immigration law after opponents present new evidence

On Tuesday, the National Immigration Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union were among the groups to challenge this part of the law on what they said were new grounds.

As part of their argument, they pointed to e-mails from Arizona Sen. Russell Pearce, a Republican who authored SB 1070 and then was ousted from office in a recall election in his suburban Phoenix district last year.

“It’s very clear that they were pushing the implementation of SB 1070, and they have racially discriminatory motivations for doing so,” said Alessandra Soler, executive director at the ACLU of Arizona. “Race, ethnicity and stereotypes about Latinos were the driving force behind the passage of SB 1070.”

Attorneys representing Arizona dispute that claim.