A new example of Teabagger limited government non-activism

PHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer said she had removed the state’s attorney general from defending Arizona’s controversial new immigrationenforcement law, accusing him of colluding with the United States Justice Department as it weighs whether to challenge the law in court.

But the matter remained in dispute on Saturday, as the attorney general, Terry Goddard, said in an e-mail message that he was “definitely defending the state” in legal challenges to the law.

Ms. Brewer, a Republican, said she took action after Mr. Goddard, a Democrat and potential challenger in her re-election bid, met Friday with Justice Department lawyers, who then met with her legal advisers.

Mr. Goddard, who has publicly stated that he opposes the law but has vowed to defend the state in court as its chief lawyer, said he told the Justice Department team that “we need solutions from Washington, not more lawsuits.”

Ms. Brewer expressed similar sentiments after her legal advisers met with the federal lawyers, vowing to defend the state to the United States Supreme Court if necessary.

But she accused Mr. Goddard of a lack of resolve on immigration matters and called his meeting with the Justice Department team a “curious coordination.”

“For some inexplicable reason, the Department of Justice officials met with the Arizona attorney general hours before meeting with the State of Arizona’s legal team, and then allowed the attorney general to hold a press conference to discuss the meeting,” she said in a statement.

The immigration law she signed gave her the power to coordinate the state’s legal defense because the Legislature saw a “lack of confidence” in Mr. Goddard’s willingness to defend the law, she said.

The United States attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., is nearing a decision on whether to challenge the law, which gives the state and local police broad authority to enforce federal immigration law. It allows the police to check the immigration status of people they suspect are illegal immigrants who they have stopped for another reason.

Justice Department officials said they routinely meet with a state’s attorney general and governor when considering legal action against their state.