This is a headline we like to see: Arizona Sheriff Arpaio Loses Bid to Dismiss U.S. Bias Lawsuit
The loss against Sheriff Joe means the lawsuit against him will proceed:
Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department that accuses him and his officers of systematically discriminating against Latinos.
Chief U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver in Phoenix, without ruling on the merits of the government’s allegations, yesterday rejected Arpaio’s request to throw out the claims on legal grounds. Arpaio claimed the U.S. failed to provide sufficient statistical evidence that his practices had a disparate impact on Latinos in Arizona’s biggest county by population.
“At the motion to dismiss stage, a complaint need not allege statistical data,” Silver said. She said the U.S. has alleged “sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.”
There are a lot of Latinos in Maricopa County who know the claim is plausible on its face. This ruling means that they may finally get a court to hear about Arpaio’s blatant racial profiling and discrimination.
