The U.S. Supreme Court may well have breathed new life into the city of Hazleton’s ordinance barring employers and landlords from hiring or renting to illegal immigrants, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit implied in questioning at a hearing Wednesday.
In 2006, the city was the first to pass a law of that kind, but it was promptly enjoined from taking effect by U.S. District Judge James Munley of the Middle District of Pennsylvania a ruling that was upheld by the Third Circuit in 2010. However, in light of the Supreme Court’s opinions from its most recent term and the previous term regarding immigration-related state laws, the Third Circuit heard arguments on Hazleton’s ordinance on remand from the high court.
