The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would not let Florida file a complaint challenging two other states that allowed illegal immigrants to obtain commercial driver’s licenses and drive on America’s roads.
Florida had argued the high court was the right place to settle the Sunshine State’s dispute with California and Washington, the two states it sought to sue.
But the justices turned back the complaint without comment.
Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying Florida deserved its chance to challenge what has become a “disturbingly common” problem of “illegal immigrants who cannot read English” yet are licensed to drive large tractor-trailers.
He said the court had a duty to take up the dispute.
“This court declines to even hear Florida’s claims, even though it has nowhere else to bring them,” he wrote in an opinion joined by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Florida had said California and Washington violated federal regulations by allowing commercial driver’s licenses to “non-domiciled drivers” who are here without firm legal status but have still been issued a work permit by Homeland Security.
Under the last administration, that category of people grew by millions as President Biden expanded use of Temporary Protected Status and parole to let migrants enter or remain here under a less-than-lawful status.
Things came to a head last year with a string of accidents in which nondomiciled drivers were accused of being at fault.
One involved Harjinder Singh, who authorities said made an illegal U-turn across a median on the Florida Turnpike, crashing into a minivan and killing all three of its passengers.
Police said Mr. Singh, a citizen of India who jumped the border, had obtained his commercial driver’s license from Washington even though he probably couldn’t read English well enough to understand America’s road signs.
Florida, in its complaint, had called laws in states that allowed commercial licenses for illegal immigrants a form of sanctuary that, as the fatal crash underscored, had real consequences for other states.
“California’s and Washington’s negligence and willful disregard of federal licensing standards pose an actionable public nuisance,” the state argued.
And it said the two other states violated federal regulations by issuing commercial driver’s licenses for nondomiciled drivers that lasted longer than their work permits authorized.
California had said Florida’s lawsuit made “unfounded assumptions” about the state’s operations, plus insisted it does test for legal presence and English proficiency.
Washington mounted a similar defense and called Florida’s lawsuit a “political stunt, not a real claim.”
The Trump administration has stepped into the dispute. The federal Transportation Department last year pressured California to cancel 20,000 licenses for nondomiciled drivers.
The feds also issued a rule blocking commercial licenses for many nondomiciled drivers, including those here without legal visas, such as migrant parolees.
A federal appeals court has let that rule take effect.
The Transportation Department also announced it would withhold $73 million from New York until it revoked nondomiciled commercial licenses.
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