(Reuters) – In the ornate Chinese Ballroom of Washington’s Mayflower Hotel, nine Republican state attorneys general gathered last month at a long, white-cloth covered table for an unusual news conference. One by one, as TV news cameras rolled, they catalogued their many lawsuits against President Barack Obama’s administration.

When it came to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s turn, he said, “We have eight lawsuits.” One of those, defending Arizona’s new law requiring police officers to check the papers of anyone they suspect is in the U.S. illegally, will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

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