Court Rules Alabama Public Schools Can't Check Citizenship of New Students

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Alabama’s law requiring all of its public schools to check the citizenship status of new students was unconstitutional, in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said the provision “wrongly singles out children who are in the country illegally.”

The Obama administration filed a lawsuit to block Alabama’s immigration law. 

Alabama passed the provision that was ruled to be unconstitutional as part of its tough immigration law (HB 56), which included an Arizona-like provision allowing police to check the citizenship status of people they stop for violating another law. The court found that provision to be constitutional.