A federal judge in Maryland has ruled that Executive Order mandating compliance with the “e-verify” program for confirmation of immigration status as part of the Federal Acquisition Regulations is constitutional and enforceable. The case decision, issued on August 26, 2009, granted summary judgment to the federal government and leaves intact an administration decision to implement the final rule effective September 8, 2009.

The issue may not end here. On August 31, 2009, various parties filed a notice of appeal of the decision. Further, the appellants have filed an emergency motion for stay to delay application of the court’s ruling during the pendency of the appeal and accompanying memorandum. We still have no ruling on this motion, so for a few more days it is still perhaps unclear whether e-verify will officially start on September 8 or perhaps be punted back until resolution of the appeal of this case.

Updated on 9/5/2009: The court officially denied the emergency motion for stay on September 4, 2009 so it appears that e-verify will indeed kick off on Tuesday. Our employment and labor colleague here at Bean Kinney, Phil Keating, has written a more detailed discussion memorandum of the issues relating to e-verify.