U.S. v. Carrillo-Lopez

Human Rights First joined with Asian-Americans Advancing Justice and sister organizations in submitting an amicus brief in U.S. v. Carrillo-Lopez, a case challenging the legality of the federal unlawful reentry statute, at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The brief discusses the blatantly racist and anti-Asian origins of the plenary power doctrine, which has been used to justify minimal constitutional scrutiny of racist immigration laws. The brief argues that if the plenary power doctrine is not discarded altogether, it should be severely limited, and that it should certainly not be applied in cases like Carrillo-Lopez, to shield a race-based equal protection challenge to a criminal law from ordinary constitutional review.