SMU political science professor Joseph F. Kobylka, who was featured prominently in the PBS documentary, “The Supreme Court,” analyzes Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Arizona v. U.S. to uphold the “stop and check” provision of the law: 

“This provision now goes into effect, and will be subject to litigation as to whether, when applied, it violates the federal government’s regulation of immigration matters or the equal protection clause as permitting some kind of ‘racial profiling.’ 

“Second, Justice Kennedy, who wrote the opinion, and Chief Justice Roberts, who assigned the opinion to Kennedy, broke with their usual judicial bloc (Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito) to create the majority (along with Justices Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor) striking the law.

“Third, this coalition – in its support of broad federal power in the area of immigration – may suggest that a majority of Justices might be more open to sustaining the Affordable Care Act as a regulation of ‘commerce among the states’ than seemed likely after oral arguments,” Kobylka said.