The Supreme Court denied a lawsuit filed by Florida against California and Washington over their issuance of commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants in violation of federal law.
The high court denied the petition to hear the case 7-2, with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissenting. Florida filed a motion for the Supreme Court to hear the lawsuit directly because it was a lawsuit between two or more states, a rare instance of the high court’s original jurisdiction, but the unsigned majority did not offer an explanation for why it denied hearing the case. Thomas wrote a five-page dissent, joined by Alito, arguing that because the Sunshine State cannot file the lawsuit in any other court, the justices must hear their claims against the two West Coast states.
“The State of Florida moved for leave to file a complaint against Washington and California for defying federal law by providing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens who cannot read English,” Thomas wrote, dissenting from the majority’s decision. “The result of this practice, Florida alleges, is the disturbing phenomenon of illegal-alien truck drivers causing fatal accidents on the road. I respectfully dissent from the Court’s denial of Florida’s motion because we cannot refuse to hear suits between States.”
Thomas discussed the “disturbingly common” pattern of states ignoring federal CDL standards, mentioning the August 2025 incident on a Florida highway when Harjinder Singh, an illegal immigrant from India, allegedly attempted an illegal U-turn across multiple lanes with a tractor-trailer, killing three people in a minivan traveling behind him. Washington and California had both given Singh CDLs despite his immigration status, and an investigation found he failed the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s English proficiency test.
“The Department of Transportation seems to partly attribute this trend to ‘systemic non-compliance’ with federal CDL standards in several States, including California,” Thomas wrote.
In his dissent, Thomas outlined how Florida likely satisfied the requirements for the Supreme Court to hear the case, including the case being of significant importance and Sunshine State officials having no other court to file their claims.
“This Court declines to even hear Florida’s claims, even though it has nowhere else to bring them,” Thomas said. “Because I would allow Florida to file its complaint, I respectfully dissent.”
THE MAJOR SUPREME COURT DECISIONS REMAINING FOR THIS TERM
With the Supreme Court declining to take up the case, Florida’s lawsuit against California and Washington will not move forward. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the lawsuit in October 2025, the same month he announced a separate lawsuit filed to the high court against California over a tax policy, which the Sunshine State claims attempts to incentivize companies from leaving California by “over-taxing” revenue earned in other states. Florida argues that the policy violates the commerce clause of the Constitution, among other federal laws.
The Supreme Court has discussed the other petition at multiple closed-door conferences but has yet to rule on whether it will take up the tax case.