Farmers Branch asks court to uphold ban against illegal immigrant renters

We don't yet know when this will be over.

No kidding, I thought this case was zipped. Or rather, zapped. Farmer’s Branch has had a long, expensive fight to keep undocumented immigrants from renting homes in the town just north of LBJ. Of course, with all the construction on LBJ, one wonders how they have any tenants at all. Four years ago, Farmers Branch was sued after it passed an ordinance giving the city building inspector the power to evict any undocumented immigrant renters. And it lost that battle.

But that was only round one. Now the town with the agrarian name will have a most important hearing before a mainly conservative group of judges before the full membership of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Talk about opening a national debate: Ten of this court’s judges were appointed by Republican presidents and just five by Democrats.

The fireworks, er, legal arguments, started Wednesday in New Orleans.