With every week that passes, it becomes more and more obvious our state's new immigration law will soon go the way of the dodo bird. Apparently, amidst their scramble to take over the State House in Montgomery, the Alabama Legislature's new Republican majority forgot to pack their law books and take them along.

Immigration laws passed in other states and similar to Alabama's are already landing sunny-side down in courts all across the country. Last month, a federal judge blocked parts of Georgia's new law targeting illegal immigrants. Even before legislators there passed their now-failing effort, similar bills in Arizona and Utah had also sizzled out once scrutinized by the nation's court system.

So what did the folks we voted into office do in the wake of those well-documented roadblocks? Why, they went right out and cracked open an almost identical calamity right here in Alabama. Wasn't it Einstein who said the very definition of insanity is repeating the same task over and over and expecting a different result each time?

Fast forward a few weeks past the ruling on the Georgia law and, if you happened to be listening to the July 15 edition of the Danny Lee Show on WFPA in Fort Payne you heard Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley pretty much admit that the new Alabama law is toast.

I'm paraphrasing from a reporter who heard the interview, but the gist of what the governor said is not in dispute. Basically, Bentley said, he knew the law was vague and needed “clarifying” but signed it anyway because he didn't want to bother with doing the appropriate thing, which would have been to send the bill back to the Legislature for further revision (read “corrections”). Earlier this month, a coalition of civil rights groups opposed to the law filed suit against the state. Last week, the same coalition followed up with a motion for injunction in federal court in Huntsville.

Here's the craziest part of this entire episode (so far, at least). According to Birmingham News reporter Joey Kennedy in a story published by al.com on July 19, Republican House Speaker Mike Hubbard has already admitted that “parts of the new immigration law passed by the Alabama Legislature … will be thrown out in federal court.”

Not “might be”, or “could be”, or “may be”. Will be. In light of that, my question echoes Kennedy's: If Alabama is so strapped for money then how the hell (italics and expletive mine) can the state afford to defend “wrongheaded laws its leaders know won't survive”? For whatever reason, our men and women in Montgomery instead chose to shuck off common sense and join the fools from those other states in their breakfast nook of nuttiness.

I think most everyone in Alabama would agree with Gov. Bentley's remark on WFPA that “illegal immigrants are just that – illegal.” He's right. But he's dead wrong to also claim that, since federal authorities “are not doing their job,” it is therefore “up to the states to pick up the slack.”

My one-word reply to Gov. Bentley and anyone who agrees with him on that assertion is this: wrong. I agree something needs to be done, but the United States Constitution is pretty clear on which legislative body's job that is. (In case you're an Alabama state legislator who can't find your copy of the Constitution, it's Congress.)

Sorry, legislators. When it comes to being frustrated with the machinations (or lack thereof) of the federal government, you're in the same boiling pot as the rest of us — at least in regards to illegal immigration. The law you passed a few months back is heavy-handed, harmful to the state's economy, opposed by just about every organized church group in the state and, oh-by-the-way … violates the U.S. Constitution.

Come on, guys. The people who voted to hand your party the majority in Montgomery didn't do so with the expectation that the entire state of Alabama would end up with egg on its collective face the very first time they let you into the kitchen. When both the Republican governor and House speaker pretty much admit to committing such an embarrassing waste of time on purpose, it makes me doubtful that the GOP is any more capable of legislating than the party it largely replaced in the last statewide election.