The Southern Poverty Law Center and a coalition of other civil rights groups filed a motion asking a federal judge to block Alabama’s anti-immigrant law from taking effect Sept. 1.

The motion for preliminary injunction, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, follows a federal lawsuit the groups filed earlier this month that charged the law is unconstitutional on multiple grounds. Alabama’s law, which affects myriad aspects of daily life for countless Alabamians, is even more restrictive than Arizona’s infamous SB 1070, which has been blocked by the courts.

“This law so undermines our core American values of fairness and equality that it is essential this be weighed before the law is allowed to go into effect,” said SPLC Legal Director Mary Bauer. “When the speaker of the House, who championed this law and guided it to passage, is acknowledging it has problems, it is clear we have a serious issue.”