In August, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rendered decisions on
Alabama’s and Georgia’s immigration enforcement laws. The panel blocked some controversial
parts of these laws, including: (1) Alabama’s Section 28, requiring public K-12 schools to count
newly-enrolling unlawfully present children; (2) Alabama’s Section 27, voiding most private
contracts entered into with unlawfully present individuals; and (3) Alabama’s Section 13 and
Georgia’s Section 8, criminalizing the harboring or transporting of unlawfully present
individuals. But Alabama and Georgia now hope that the three-judge panel will not have the last
word on these sections. On September 10, both states asked the full ten-judge bench of the 11th
Circuit to hear arguments against these three provisions, for what is called an “en banc review.”
The 11th Circuit has not yet ruled on the states’ petitions.