The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Florida’s long shot attempt to drag California and Washington state into a fight over commercial driver licenses issued to truckers who don’t speak English and are not authorized to be in the United States. The ruling leaves intact the authority of state licensing systems that Florida says should not be able to hand out CDLs to people who are not citizens or legal permanent residents, even as a crash in Florida last year that killed three people remains the backdrop for the dispute.
Who Pays for the System
The case stems from a crash in Florida last year that killed three people. The driver, Harjinder Singh, is accused of making an illegal U-turn that caused the accident. Singh, who is from India, was carrying a valid commercial driver’s license from California and had earlier been granted one by Washington state. Those facts sit at the center of a political fight over who gets to move goods on public roads and which state gets to decide who is allowed behind the wheel.
Florida, led by Republicans, accused the Western states, led by Democrats, of openly defying immigration laws. The state asked the justices to rule that states lack the authority to issue CDLs to people who are not citizens or legal permanent residents. In other words, one state tried to use the nation’s highest court to force other states into a narrower gatekeeping role over workers whose lives and labor are already regulated by the apparatus.
What the Court Refused to Do
The Supreme Court typically hears appeals of lower-court decisions, but it sometimes takes on what are known as original lawsuits in which states sue each other in the nation’s highest court. On Tuesday, the court rejected Florida’s attempt. The order means the dispute over state authority to issue commercial driver licenses to immigrants was not taken up as an original lawsuit.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from Tuesday’s order, as they often do when the court rejects an original lawsuit, saying that the court has no choice but to hear such cases. Their dissent underscores how even the court’s internal machinery can become a venue for states to fight over who gets to control movement, labor, and legal status.
The Bigger Cage Around Workers
The licensing fight does not stand alone. Separately, a federal appeals court has blocked a Trump administration proposal to impose new restrictions that would severely limit which immigrants can get commercial driver’s licenses to drive a semitrailer truck or bus. That proposal would have tightened the screws further on who can work in a sector already governed by layers of state and federal control.
The clash shows how the system sorts people through paperwork, borders, and licenses while ordinary workers absorb the consequences when those systems fail. Florida’s case, the Supreme Court’s refusal, and the blocked Trump administration proposal all orbit the same machinery: state power deciding who may work, who may drive, and who gets blamed when disaster hits.
What the States Are Fighting Over
Republican-led Florida said California and Washington state were openly defying immigration laws.
The Western states were led by Democrats.
Harjinder Singh was carrying a valid commercial driver’s license from California and had earlier been granted one by Washington state.
The Supreme Court rejected Florida’s attempt to sue the two states.
A federal appeals court separately blocked a Trump administration proposal that would have severely limited which immigrants can get commercial driver’s licenses to drive a semitrailer truck or bus.