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Appeals court allows Arizona day laborers

SAN FRANCISCO, March 5 (UPI) -- An appeals court upheld a lower court's decision to strike down parts of Arizona's illegal-immigration law that prevent stopping traffic to solicit day workers.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously agreed a portion of the law prohibiting motorists from stopping traffic to solicit day laborers is a violation of the First Amendment right to seek work, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

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Appellate Judge Raymond C. Fisher wrote the law singled out day labor solicitation as illegal while ignoring other types of solicitation that block traffic.

"Arizona defends this content-based distinction by invoking the  'unique' danger posed by labor solicitation. That justification is only minimally supported by the record and, tellingly, [the law's] introduction says nothing about traffic safety," he wrote for the court. "Rather, it emphasizes that its purpose is to encourage self-deportation by stripping undocumented immigrants of their livelihood."

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, said she was disappointed in the ruling.

"This provision offered one more tool for law enforcement to use in combating crime in our neighborhoods as a result of illegal immigration," spokesman Matthew Benson said in a statement.

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