PHOENIX – The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona's new law targeting illegal immigrants, setting the stage for a clash between the federal government and the state over the nation's toughest immigration crackdown. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix argues that Arizona's law requiring state and local police to question and possibly arrest illegal immigrants during the enforcement of other laws such as traffic violations usurps federal authority. "In our constitutional system, the federal government has pre-eminent authority to regulate immigration matters," the lawsuit says. "This authority derives from the United States Constitution and numerous acts of Congress. The nation's immigration laws reflect a careful and considered balance of national law enforcement, foreign relations, and humanitarian interests." (How about protecting the citizens of the United States from all aggressors?) State Sen. Russell Pearce, the principal sponsor of the bill, denounced the lawsuit as "absolute insult to the rule of law" as well as to Arizona and its residents. "It's outrageous and it's clear they don't want (immigration) laws enforced. They ignore the damage to America, the cost to our citizens, the deaths" tied to border-related violence. . President Barrack Obama has called the state law misguided. Supporters say it is a reasonable reaction to federal inaction on immigration. Gov. Jan Brewer's spokesman called the decision to sue "a terribly bad decision." "Arizona obviously has a terrible border security crisis that needs to be addressed, so Gov. Brewer has repeatedly said she would have preferred the resources and attention of the federal government would be focused on that crisis rather than this." Three of the five Democrats in Arizona's congressional delegation, who are facing tough re-election battles, had also urged Obama not to try to block the law from going into effect. (The American People are watching, and we want our country’s borders secure from all assaults.) Two Arizona senators lashed out at the administration's decision, saying "the American people must wonder whether the Obama Administration is really committed to securing the border when it sues a state that is simply trying to protect its people by enforcing immigration law." Obama addressed the Arizona law in a speech on immigration reform last week. He touched on one of the major concerns of federal officials, that other states were poised to follow Arizona by crafting their own immigration enforcement laws. (Ya dang skippy, big guy.) "As other states and localities go their own ways, we face the prospect that different rules for immigration will apply in different parts of the country," Obama said. "A patchwork of local immigration rules where we all know one clear national standard is needed." (We can all agree on that, sir. If the federal laws already on the books were enforced, this wouldn’t be happening. Why can’t you, our alleged leader, see that? What’s our president’s problem with leading & protecting the American population first and foremost? I truly love America. I love how we got here, and the Christian principles we were founded on. Did you have any idea that the change he campaigned on would mean the end of our free, capitalistic republic, and the end of personal responsibility? George Orwell seems to have been correct. He was just 26 years off target on the year. 1984 seems to have taken a bit over a quarter century longer for this question mark of a leader to take hold, and give all that so many have died for away with an open border and unenforced laws. God bless Governor Brewer of Arizona, and here’s to the states following her lead. The laws of the land have got to be enforced. Without that, we have no law. Without law we have no country. If the federal government won’t protect the citizens of America, then what choice do the states have?