The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to take up a request from Florida to block a lower court’s decision that bars the state from enforcing parts of its new immigration law.
The one-sentence order did not say why the court denied the emergency request from Florida’s attorney general.
The case stemmed from a challenge by two immigration groups and two undocumented immigrants to legislation that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law this year making it a crime to enter Florida after having come into the United States illegally and re-entering the state after having been deported.
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U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams temporarily blocked enforcement of the law in April, and last month she found Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in civil contempt over what she said was an effort to defy her order.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Uthmeier’s request to pause Williams’ ruling last month and expedited the appeal for consideration before the panel in October.
In documents filed with the Supreme Court, Uthmeier had said Florida was “cognizant” of the federal government’s role in immigration enforcement and argued that the state was “purposefully aligning the law with federal requirements and objectives.”
The Trump administration had similarly contended in a supporting brief that the measure “complements” federal law and that the statutes “are materially identical to the federal entry and reentry provisions.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a Supreme Court brief this month on behalf of those challenging the law, argued that courts have ruled against states that have passed similar laws over the past two years. It also cited the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling in Arizona v. United States that said, “The Government of the United States has broad, undoubted power over the subject of immigration and the status of aliens.”
Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, praised the high court’s ruling in a statement Wednesday.
“This ruling affirms what the Constitution demands — that immigration enforcement is a federal matter and that no one should be stripped of their liberty without due process,” Jackson said.
A spokesperson for Uthmeier’s office said Florida will proceed with its appeal in the 11th Circuit.
“Florida’s sovereignty cannot be left up to the whims of the next presidential administration,” the spokesperson, Jae Williams, said in a statement. “The law passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor DeSantis is important to Florida’s future, and we believe it will prevail on the merits.”
