[JURIST] A US district judge in enjoined the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday from enforcing an ordinance [DOC text] that prohibits illegal immigrants from occupying leased property. US District Judge Jane J. Boyle of the Northern District of Texas [official websites] issued a preliminary injunction, replacing a temporary restraining order [Dallas Morning News report] entered earlier this month, as she set an expedited schedule that would bring the case to trial by early December. A spokeswoman for the ACLU of Texas [advocacy website], which is representing some of the plaintiffs, said [press release] after the judge's decision that

[e]very court in the country that has reviewed these local anti-immigrant housing ordinances has put a stop to them. Farmers Branch has taken the curious approach of recreating their ordinance to be even more intrusive and offensive, to the point of subjecting everyone to an intrusive, Big Brother-like licensing regime. The city has lost sight not only of the law, but of common sense, in this case.