Florida wanted to sue California and Washington state over a fatal Florida crash blamed on an undocumented immigrant from India. Washington state’s attorney general called it a ‘political stunt.’
WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on May 26 rebuffed Florida’s attempt to sue California and Washington state over a fatal Florida crash blamed on an undocumented immigrant from India that became a political flashpoint.
The court rejected Florida’s complaint that those states allow undocumented immigrants who lack training and are not proficient in English to drive commercial trucks.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they wanted to hear the dispute.
Attorneys for California and Washington state called the suit a “political stunt.” Even if the allegations were true, the states’ attorneys said, they should be addressed by the federal agency that regulates commercial driver’s license standards.
Otherwise, the Supreme Court will be asked to get involved in any number of policy disputes between states, said Washington state Attorney General Nicholas Brown.
“Can States bring nuisance claims against each other in this Court alleging that lax vaccination policies or firearm restrictions in one state are causing harm in another?” Brown wrote in a filing. “The Court should not open that door.”
Florida sought permission to file its suit directly with the Supreme Court under a procedure used to resolve interstate disputes on such issues as water rights or fights over boundaries.
In his dissent, Thomas said the court should have taken the case because Florida has no other means of filing such a challenge.
This challenge stems from a crash that killed three people on a Florida highway in August.
Harjinder Singh, whom the federal government has said illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico in 2018, has pled not guilty to charges that he caused the crash by attempting an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike. He has not yet been tried.
But the case immediately turned into a political battle between President Donald Trump, Republican leaders in Florida and the Democratic leaders of California and Washington state. Singh had commercial driver’s licenses first from Washington and then from California.
“California’s and Washington’s decisions to endanger their own citizens is reprehensible,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told the Supreme Court in a filing. “But commercial drivers routinely cross state lines, endangering citizens of other States.”
Uthmeier wanted the court to stop the other states from issuing licenses to drivers who entered the country illegally.
Brown, the attorney general in Washington state, said Florida is “seeking to distract from its own incompetence.”
“In recent years, Florida has improperly licensed thousands of commercial drivers without evidence that those drivers speak English or meet residency requirements,” he wrote.
During this year’s State of the Union address, Trump urged Congress to bar states from granting commercial drivers licenses to people who lack legal permission to live in the U.S.
His proposed law would complement a series of regulatory and enforcement changes being implemented by the federal Department of Transportation, which oversees motor carriers.
Among the strongest critics of the measures are India-born Sikhs, who make up about 150,000 members of the trucking community, according to regulatory data. Tens of thousands of Sikhs sought asylum in the United States during the Biden presidency, many of them crossing the Mexican border without advance permission.
Contributing: Trevor Hughes
