[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.]
Supreme Court: Florida Can't Sue States Over Immigrant CDLs
Florida Said California, Washington Failed to Verify Status of Applicants
| Updated:
Key Takeaways:
- The Supreme Court declined to let Florida sue California and Washington over licensing policies, refusing to hear the case without explanation.
- Florida argued the two states made it too easy for undocumented immigrants to obtain commercial licenses, while those states denied wrongdoing and called the claims unfounded or political.
- With the court stepping aside (despite two dissents), the broader conflict over driver licensing standards and interstate impacts remains unsettled.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to let Florida file an unusual lawsuit that accused California and Washington of making it too easy for undocumented immigrants to get commercial driver licenses.
Giving no explanation, the justices on May 26 rejected Florida’s bid to sue its fellow states directly in the Supreme Court, as states can do under some circumstances to protect their sovereign interests. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, saying they would have granted Florida’s motion to file the complaint.
Florida argued unsuccessfully that California and Washington were failing to verify the immigration status of license applicants and require them to show English proficiency, as required under federal law. Florida claimed it was having to implement “a flurry of costly preventive measures” to keep its roads safe.
California said the lawsuit was based on the “unfounded assumption” that the state doesn’t verify legal presence and test for English proficiency. Washington called the suit “a political stunt, not a real claim,” pointing to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s announcement of the case on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News.
The lawsuit blamed California and Washington for a fatal accident caused by an undocumented immigrant making an illegal U-turn in a tractor-trailer on a Florida highway. Florida said the driver at one point had California and Washington licenses, though Washington said he didn’t have a valid license from that state at the time of the crash.
“An illegal alien who cannot read English road signs cannot drive an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer,” Thomas wrote in his dissenting opinion.
The case is Florida v. California and Washington, 22o162.
