Had to see this one coming.

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PHOENIX — A federal judge dealt a serious blow to Arizona's immigration law on Wednesday when she put most of the crackdown on hold just hours before it was to take effect.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton sets up a lengthy legal battle as Arizona fights to enact the nation's toughest-in-the-nation law. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said the state will likely appeal the ruling and seek to get the judge's order overturned.

But for now, opponents of the law have prevailed: The provisions that angered opponents will not take effect, including sections that required officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws.

The judge also delayed parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places. In addition, the judge blocked officers from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.

"Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully-present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked," U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, a Clinton appointee, said in her decision.

She said the controversial sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues. Other provisions of the law, many of them procedural and slight revisions to existing Arizona immigration statute, will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

Either way, it was going to go onward and upward through the courts.

If it meanders through at the normal pace we may have another vacancy on the SCOTUS. If not, the 5 Activist judges on the Roberts court may overturn the ruling.

In the meantime, as happens whenever Arizona enacts or threatens to enact stronger laws concerning illegals, many leave the state. And then there's positive and negative consequences to that.

And, it could have gone "onward and upward through the courts" while intact or in action. It is better this way.

Yes, disorder is better for B.O.'s agenda.