Wall Street Journal (04/26/12) Jess Bravin

The Obama administration argued before the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday that Arizona exceeded its powers by asking police officers to check the immigration status of people they stop, but the justices seemed skeptical. It remains unclear which components of the state law, such as making it a criminal offense for illegal immigrants to look for a job, will be upheld. Federal law penalizes companies that hire illegal immigrants and people who use fake documents to get a job, but federal law doesn’t penalize illegal immigrants for merely seeking work, which the Arizona law seeks to do. “The state of Arizona, in this case, is imposing some significantly greater sanctions” than Congress did, said chief justice John Roberts.