Farmers Branch

Although I haven't written very much lately about Farmers Branch, Texas and its nativist elements and anti-immigrant actions, I have regularly kept up with that nasty situation. But the good news about that mess is that yesterday United States District Judge Sam A. Lindsay has found that Farmers Branch Ordinance 2903 is preempted by the Supremacy Clause and issued a temporary restraining order (available here as a pdf file) that restrains and prohibits the City of Farmers Branch, and its officers, agents, servants, employees, representatives, or attorneys "from effectuating or enforcing Ordinance 2903." Ordinance 2903 (available here as a text document) requires landlords and property managers of apartment complexes in Farmers Branch to document the U.S. citizenship or “eligible immigration status” of certain tenants prior to allowing the tenants to lease an apartment.

Here's Judge Lindsay's official conclusion:

All in all, the court concludes that only the federal government may determine whether an individual is legally in the United States. Farmers Branch, rather than deferring to the federal government’s determination of immigration status, has created its own classification scheme for determining which noncitizens may rent an apartment in that city. Farmers Branch has failed to adopt federal immigration standards. The Ordinance adopts federal housing regulations that govern which noncitizens may receive housing subsidies from the federal government, not federal immigration standards that determine which noncitizens are legally in this country. Because Farmers Branch has attempted to regulate immigration differently from the federal government, the Ordinance is preempted by the Supremacy Clause.

Judge Lindsay's ruling is a very well-reasoned opinion and I don't think anyone, not even the Farmers Branch City Attorney, is at all surprised by his ruling.

Nor should anyone be surprised to see or hear some folks rant on about how Judge Lindsay's order denies the citizens of Farmers Branch, who just voted two to one in the May 12 election in favor of Ordinance 2903, to democratically run the affairs of their city as they see fit. Such "will of the people" arguments are nonsense, of course, because voter-sanctioned acts that fly in the face of our Constitution and other laws can't be legally sustained. As many courts have now ruled, the power to regulate immigration is unquestionably and exclusively a federal power, and that's as it should be.

A more interesting development in Farmers Branch, though, is a new law suit that argues minorities are underrepresented because of the at-large city council system in Farmers Branch. As reported yesterday by the Associated Press, the lawsuit seeks creation of single-member districts, in which a city council member is elected to represent a specific section of the city. We have single-member city council districts here in Bryan, which is the electoral system I prefer, but as best as I can tell the majority of Texas municipalities use the at-large system. Given that Latino's comprise close to 40% of the population of Farmers Branch, I'd say they are entitled to elect a member to their city council that they prefer, but unless they've got some pretty strong evidence to support their argument, I suspect they'll have a tough time convincing a court to throw out their current at-large system.