Yesterday, a federal judge stopped key parts of Arizona’s immigration law, preventing the state from solving its own immigration problems.  U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled states could not charge anyone failing to possess immigration documentation or require police to determine the immigration status of people they stop.

The ruling gives President Obama’s administration a temporary victory in the lawsuit against Arizona, and Bolton’s decision was influenced by the probability of the federal government winning the case. However, the decision unnecessarily restricts state sovereignty, as even the provision making it a crime for illegal immigrants to apply for work was prevented.

Although critics have been quick to misrepresent the provisions of the law, nothing in the legislation usurps power from the federal government. The law requires police only to ask about immigration status if the person is otherwise stopped for a violation. Legal immigrants are already required to have passports, visas and other documentation.

Because the federal government refuses to adequately address illegal immigration that has closed off parts of the country to Americans, Arizona has taken the law into its own hands. States are the laboratories of democracy, and the federal government should have allowed Arizona to test this law to see if immigration reform tactics could be learned from it. Although the federal government is appealing to those against the Arizona law, states should be allowed to keep as much power as possible in passing its own laws.