In its lawsuit, the Justice Department says Alabama's law unconstitutionally interferes with the federal government's authority over immigration.

"To put it in terms we relate to here in Alabama, you can only have one quarterback in a football game. In immigration, the federal government is the quarterback," said Joyce White Vance, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.

Justice Department lawyers write in the lawsuit that the department is filing the action "to declare invalid and preliminarily and permanently enjoin the enforcement of various provisions" of the state law, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Birmingham this afternoon. Provisions within the state's immigration law "are preempted by federal law and therefore violate the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution."

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