Professor Douglas Kmiec Quoted in "The Supreme Court Could Reshape the Debate Over State Immigration Enforcement" -- Pacific Standard

March 22, 2019 | Professor Douglas W. Kmiec, U.S. Ambassador (Ret.), is quoted in the Pacific Standard article, "The Supreme Court Could Reshape the Debate Over State Immigration Enforcement." The article considers the Supreme Court's decision to hear Kansas v. Garcia, in which the Court will determine if states can prosecute undocumented people who use false Social Security numbers to obtain work.

Excerpt from "The Supreme Court Could Reshape the Debate Over State Immigration Enforcement"

Some analysts are confident that the ruling will favor the state's ability to prosecute a question of identity theft.

"Insofar as the purpose of the state legislation is to address identity theft, the state has a greater interest and a separable interest from that of the federal government and its concerns with immigration," says Douglas W. Kmiec, a professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University and a former ambassador to Malta. "While it is possible that the Supreme Court would still find legislation not directed at immigration enforcement to be unconstitutionally burdensome under the dormant commerce clause, it is less likely to do so."