Since The End Of July SB1070 Has Cost Arizona A Million Dollars In Legal Bills

Tucson - Howard Fischer of the East Valley Tribune has a story up here, which shows that since July of this year SB1070 has cost Arizona a Million dollars to defend.

Lawyers defending the state's new immigration law already have tallied more than $1 million in bills.

And that's as of the end of July.

New figures released Wednesday by the governor's office put the legal bills for just July at $621,846. That is the most expensive month since the lawsuits were filed after Gov. Jan Brewer signed the new law in April.

That is on top of an already large amount of legal bills that have billed to the law firm of Snell and Wilmer:

It also comes on top of more than $442,000 already paid to the law firm of Snell & Wilmer for prior work.

In reality none of the cost of defending the state has affected Arizona tax payers, yet:

So far, though, none of that has affected the state treasury: Brewer's office reports that a defense fund she set up already has collected more than $3.6 million in donations.

About two-thirds of that has come through the mail, including a check for more than $1.5 million from Timothy Mellon.

However with up to eight lawsuits, and Governor Brewers plan to appeal any decision that repeals SB1070, those bills will probably increase beyond the 3.6 million donations:

What's left, nearly $1.5 million, was donated through a website set up to take credit card donations.

The big bill for July is no surprise, as that includes the preparation for and actual hearings before U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton over whether the law should be allowed to take effect. She eventually enjoined the state from enforcing key provisions of SB 1070, including a section to require police who have stopped someone to check that person's immigration status if there is "reasonable suspicion'' he or she is in the country illegally.

Bolton's ruling will be reviewed Monday by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Preparation for that hearing, coupled with the expenses of sending the legal team out of town, is likely to result in large bills for October and November