The California Supreme Court ruled that undocumented immigrant could now be admitted to the state bar exam and legally practice law, but only if he opens up his own law firm, the New York Times reported.
The new ruling will allow Sergio Garcia, who worked in almond fields and grocery stores and paid his way through college and law school, to open up his own practice if he wants, but under state law, he cannot be hired legally by a law firm because he was brought to the United States from Mexico illegally, according to the Times.
The Supreme Court ruling will be a closely watched immigration case and follows a bill passed last year by California legislature to specifically allow all qualified applicants, regarless of their immigration status, into the state bar, Reuters reported.
Garcia, 36, passed the California bar exam on his first try, and is excited about the recent steps taken by the courts even though no law firm will hire him, leaving him with the only option of opening his own firm, the Times reported.
The complicated ruling shows the grey area in the changing immigration laws taking place all over the country and as more states are giving their own rulings on what rights should be given to immigrants living in the country, according to the Times.
"I can finally fulfill my dream and also leave behind a legacy so that an undocumented student 20 or 30 years from now will take it for granted that they can be an attorney," Garcia told the Times during a telephone interview. "There's a lot to celebrate. I can open my own law firm, and that's exactly what I intend to do. There's no law in this country restricting entrepreneurs."
In October, the legislature passed a bill which qualified applicants like Garcia to be admitted to take the state bar no matter their immigration status and went as far as saying a person's immigration status should be left out in the decision of whether a person should be allowed to take the state bar just as much as a person's religious belief or race is, the Times reported.
"We conclude that the fact that an undocumented immigrant's presence in this country violates federal statutes is not itself a sufficient or persuasive basis for denying undocumented immigrants, as a class, admission to the state bar," Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye wrote in her opinion, the Times reported. "The fact that an undocumented immigrant is present in the United States without lawful authorization does not itself involve moral turpitude or demonstrate moral unfitness so as to justify exclusion from the state bar."
On the topic of employing someone whose status in the U.S. is illegal, the court only stated: "we assume that a licensed undocumented immigrant will make all necessary inquiries and take appropriate steps to comply with applicable legal restrictions and will advise potential clients of any possible adverse or limiting effect the attorney's immigration status may pose," according to the Times.
With Garcia's ruling and the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which states anyone under the age of 31 brought to the U.S. by their parents is legally able to live and work in the country, an increase in appeals to state bar associations from "would-be lawyers without permanent legal status" is expected, the Times reported.
