A case schedule set by a federal judge means Arizona businesses should know at least the initial outcome to challenges to the state's new employer sanctions law about a month before the intended crackdown on illegal immigration takes effect Jan. 1.
U.S. District Judge Neil Wake on Friday also simplified the legal landscape by consolidating separate challenges that employer and civil-rights groups have filed against the law passed by the Arizona Legislature last spring and signed into law by Gov. Janet Napolitano.
The law would suspend or revoke businesses licenses of employers who knowingly or intentionally hire illegal immigrants.
Supporters of the law contend it's needed to eliminate employment as an economic magnet for illegal immigrants, while critics argue that the law would pose unfair and illegal hardships on employers and workers.
A key issue in the case is whether the state law is an unconstitutional attempt by the state to regulate immigration, a federal responsibility.
The schedule set by Wake for the consolidated case makes it likely he'll receive all legal papers by late October and hear lawyers' arguments by mid-November, setting the stage for a ruling by late November or early December on whether to block implementation of the law.
The schedule also means he wouldn't rule before Oct. 1 on the civil-right groups request to put on hold the law's requirement to sends notices to employers about the law on that date.
One of the attorneys representing business groups which sued to block implementation had said employers need to know as soon as possible before Jan. 1 whether they need to buy computers and take other costly and time-consuming steps to comply with a requirement that they use a federal system to determine work eligibility of new hires.
”That would be a tough thing to do if the decision comes just before the (December) holidays,'' attorney David Selden said.
Wake noted that Napolitano had discussed the possibility of calling a special session of the Legislature to change the law, but Napolitano attorney Tim Nelson told Wake that no special session is in the offing so far because there's no sign of an agreement by lawmakers on possible changes.
“We are waiting to get direction from the Legislature,'' Nelson said.

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