On April 25, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the oral argument in “Arizona v. United States”— a high-profile case about the constitutionality of state laws that control the work and movement of undocumented immigrants living within the state.
And Saturday, April 14 on C-SPAN Radio’s Historic Supreme Court oral argument and cited in “Arizona v. U.S:” From 1976, the consolidated case: “Leonor de Canas and others, Petitioners v. Anthony Bica and others, Respondents.”
In 1972, the plaintiffs, who were domestic farm workers from California, were discharged from employment and were not rehired because the respondents, who were farm labor contractors, claimed that they had a sufficient labor supply and had no work for them. The petitioners claimed that the labor supply consisted of illegal aliens and that the respondents knew about their illegal status, thus violating a California statue that said "no employer shall knowingly employ an alien who is not entitled to lawful residence in the United States if such employment would have an adverse effect on lawful resident workers." After opinions in lower courts, the case was accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court. We note that, at that time, federal law did not address the employment of undocumented workers.