Supreme Court rejects Florida bid to sue California, Washington over CDLs

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused Florida’s bid to sue California and Washington directly over commercial driver’s licenses, shutting down an unusual attempt to make the nation’s highest court the first forum in a dispute that grew out of a deadly Florida crash.

The case began with an August 12, 2025 wreck on Florida’s Turnpike in St. Lucie County that killed three people. Florida says the truck driver, Harjinder Singh, an Indian national who had entered the United States unlawfully, made an illegal U-turn that caused the crash. State and federal investigators said Singh likely could not read road signs. He had a valid California commercial driver’s license and had earlier received one from Washington, and he has pleaded not guilty in the criminal case.

Florida argued that California and Washington were violating federal immigration and safety rules by issuing commercial licenses to people who were not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and who allegedly lacked English proficiency. The Supreme Court rejected the request without explanation, leaving in place the long-standing rule that original lawsuits between states belong there only in rare circumstances. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, saying the court should have taken the case.

The ruling matters because it draws a clear boundary around state-led immigration litigation. Florida can continue to criticize other states’ licensing standards, but it cannot easily use the Supreme Court to force a showdown over another state’s CDL policy. The decision does not rewrite commercial licensing rules, and it does not decide whether California or Washington violated federal law. It does, however, make clear that one state’s anger over another state’s immigration enforcement is not enough, by itself, to open the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction.

The fight has also spilled into the broader politics of trucking and immigration. A separate federal appeals court has already blocked a Trump administration proposal that would have sharply limited which immigrants could obtain commercial driver’s licenses for semitrailer trucks and buses. California, meanwhile, later announced it would revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses issued to immigrants after finding that some expiration dates extended beyond the drivers’ lawful stay in the United States, and it delayed those revocations until March to give qualified drivers time to keep their licenses.

For Florida, the order leaves the state with a political argument but no direct interstate lawsuit. For California and Washington, it preserves their authority to set licensing policy unless Congress, federal regulators or lower courts say otherwise.