Faculty and students in the School of Law’s Civil Rights and Community Justice Clinic earned an important victory of national significance in their fight against the City of Valley Park’s ordinances aimed at immigrants.
In a ruling March 12, St. Louis County Circuit Judge Barbara W. Wallace voided two ordinances enacted by Valley Park that forbid employers to hire and landlords to rent property to “illegal aliens.”
Working with several local and national lawyers, the clinic represented a group of landlords and business owners and a fair-housing agency.
“Judge Wallace is 100 percent correct in her ruling,” said Karen L. Tokarz, J.D., LL.M., professor of law and executive director of the Clinical Education and Alternative Dispute Resolution programs, who is among the counsel of record. “The anti-immigration ordinances enacted by Valley Park are clearly illegal under Missouri state law.”
The city’s ordinance made national headlines when the Board of Aldermen of Valley Park — a southwest St. Louis County town of fewer than 7,500 people — passed it July 17, 2006. The wording called for the denial of business permits for five years for any business that “aids and abets illegal aliens or illegal immigration.” The bill also prohibited illegal aliens from leasing or renting property and levied a $500 fine for violation, as well as declaring the city English-only.
When a lawsuit challenging the ordinance was filed Sept. 22 in St. Louis County Circuit Court, the judge ordered an injunction to stop the city from enforcing the ordinance.
The next day, the Board of Aldermen modified the law but still made it illegal for business owners and landlords to hire or rent to illegal aliens.
That law also was challenged in court, and the judge ordered another injunction.
In the lawsuit seeking to void both ordinances, those bringing suit claimed the ordinances subjected landlords and businesses to penalties that state and federal law do not allow and promoted discrimination. They also argued that immigration law is a matter reserved for the U.S. Congress and federal law.
The court sided with the plaintiffs, holding that the ordinances are “void in their entirety” in that they exceed the power delegated to a fourth-class city (the smallest municipality) and conflict with Missouri landlord-tenant law.
The ruling could set a precedent in what has become a national trend, with more than 80 cities passing legislation concerning illegal immigrants in the past year. A Hazleton, Pa., ordinance is being challenged in federal court.
“These ordinances are fueled by a mixture of misinformation and fear, and they foster discrimination and racial profiling,” Tokarz said. “This is the first court judgment in the country outlawing such ordinances and puts other cities on notice that it is illegal for cities to regulate immigration.”
Second-year law student Joshua Altman said the case and the clinic offer a great opportunity. “This case illustrates the importance of using both litigation and community-based efforts towards restoring people’s rights,” he said.
The WUSTL clinic partnered with the Saint Louis University School of Law clinic, the pro bono committee of the Bryan Cave law firm, local private lawyers and national civil rights organizations.
Along with Tokarz, Margo Schlanger, J.D., professor of law, is among the counsel of record.