Court to Hear Ariz. Immigration Appeal in November

LOS ANGELES – A US appeals court in California said Saturday it will take up Arizona's new immigration law in November after the most controversial provisions were stripped by a federal judge this week.

Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer appealed on Thursday against Judge Susan Bolton's decision and asked the court for an expedited appeals process.

The Ninth Circuit court said that first brief hearings were set for mid-September and the case would begin on November 1 in San Francisco.

Arizona in its appeal said an expedited process was of "significant importance" because it was needed to address the state's "right to implement a law its legislature enacted to address the irreparable harm Arizona is suffering as a result of unchecked unlawful immigration."

The court in a reply said that the "United States agrees with the State of Arizona that its appeal... should be briefed and resolved quickly."

The Ninth Circuit's schedule "fully accommodates the interest in achieving expedited review, without needlessly foreshortening the time for preparing the parties' appellate briefs in this important case," said the court.

Brewer appealed the judge's injunction Wednesday that stripped the most contentious sections from the legislation -- allowing police to spot check the immigration status of all suspects -- as angry protestors were met by scores of police in riot gear in Phoenix this week.

Bolton ruled that those powers would place a burden on legal resident aliens living in Arizona, where one in three of the 6.6 million people is foreign-born and an estimated 460,000 are illegal immigrants.