In Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, the Court rules 5-3 that an Arizona law punishing employers for hiring illegal aliens does not impede federal jurisdiction. From the ruling of the Court as delivered by Chief Justice Roberts:
Arizona’s licensing law falls well within the confines of the author-ity Congress chose to leave to the States and therefore is not ex-pressly preempted. While [federal immigration law] prohibits States from imposing “civilor criminal sanctions” on those who employ unauthorized aliens, it preserves state authority to impose sanctions “through licensing and similar laws.” §1324a(h)(2). That is what the Arizona law does—it instructs courts to suspend or revoke the business licenses of in-state employers that employ unauthorized aliens. The definition of “li-cense” contained in the Arizona statute largely parrots the definition of “license” that Congress codified in the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
The full opinion is here. More analysis is sure to follow here and over at Bench Memos.