The Supreme Court on May 26 turned away Florida's attempt to sue California and Washington over how the two states license commercial truck drivers, blocking a case tied to a deadly August crash that killed three people on a Florida highway.
Florida had asked the justices for permission to file the lawsuit directly with the Supreme Court, using a rare procedure normally reserved for interstate fights over water rights or boundaries. The state said California and Washington were allowing undocumented immigrants who lacked training and were not proficient in English to drive commercial trucks, and it linked the dispute to a crash that killed three people in August.
At the center of the case is Harjinder Singh, who has pleaded not guilty to charges that he caused the crash by attempting an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike. Singh has not yet been tried. Federal authorities said he entered the United States illegally from Mexico in 2018, and he had commercial driver's licenses first from Washington and then from California.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier asked the court to stop California and Washington from issuing licenses to drivers who entered the country illegally. He called the two states' decisions to endanger their own citizens reprehensible, but said commercial drivers routinely cross state lines, endangering citizens of other states. The court did not explain its decision in a written opinion.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they wanted to hear the dispute. In dissent, Thomas wrote that the court should have taken the case because Florida has no other means of filing such a challenge. The refusal leaves Florida without a direct Supreme Court forum for the complaint it wanted to press against two states.
Washington state Attorney General Nicholas Brown dismissed Florida's move as a political stunt and said Florida was seeking to distract from its own incompetence. Brown also wrote that Florida has improperly licensed thousands of commercial drivers without evidence those drivers speak English or meet residency requirements. In a filing, he asked the court a broader question: 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? The court, he said, should not open that door.
The dispute has moved well beyond a licensing fight. It became a political battle involving Trump, Republican leaders in Florida and Democratic leaders in California and Washington state. During this year's State of the Union address, Trump urged Congress to bar states from granting commercial driver's licenses to people who lack legal permission to live in the U.S. The Supreme Court's refusal to take Florida's case does not settle that policy fight, but it does shut down this particular lawsuit for now.
