A federal judge on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration’s bid to block New York’s so-called “green light law” that would have allowed the state to issue driver’s licenses to people without proving they are in the country legally.
U.S. District Judge Anne Nardach in Albany ruled that the Trump administration failed to support its claim that certain provisions of state law were preempted by federal law, regulated the federal government without permission, or discriminated against the federal government without permission.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit in February challenging the constitutionality of the state law, saying it violated the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which provides that federal law preempts state law, and asked the court to block enforcement of the statute.
The lawsuit names New York state, its Governor Kathy Hochul (D) and Attorney General Letitia James (D) as defendants.
In its lawsuit, the DOJ challenged three specific provisions of the law, including one that prohibits the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) from disclosing applicant records or information to “any agency principally enforcing immigration laws or any employee or agent of such agency” without a court order or search warrant.
Another provision requires anyone with access to DMV records to certify that they will not disclose that information. The provision at issue requires the DMV to notify applicants within three days of receiving a request for information or records from federal immigration authorities.
Nadachi acknowledged that the lawsuit dealt with the politically salient issue of immigration enforcement, but she emphasized in her ruling that her job was not to evaluate the policy itself but rather whether the plaintiffs succeeded in showing that the policy violated the Supremacy Clause.
“The court’s role is not to evaluate the desirability of the Green Light Act as a matter of policy, but rather to evaluate whether plaintiffs’ sufficiently advanced allegations (which are accepted as true) demonstrate that the challenged provisions of the Green Light Act violate the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution,” she wrote.
“The court concludes that the plaintiffs failed to make such a claim,” she added.
The law was originally enacted as part of an effort to improve public safety because people without a driver’s license sometimes drove without taking a road test first.
The Hill has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
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