Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is surely fuming right now, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the state’s plea to review a lower court decision overruling a state law making it a crime for an illegal immigrant to enter the state.
Honestly, I was not surprised this ruling was made, considering past rulings by the Court on this matter.
I would also say that this could be a strategic decision by the justices, with a sanctuary city case looming in its future.
My regular readers know that I have been waiting forever for the Court to take on sanctuary cities, and I believe it will happen during the current administration.
Almost immediately after taking her post, Attorney General Pam Bondi filed suit against New York to fight its sanctuary city laws.
On the suit, Bondi stated, “Lawless sanctuary city policies are the root cause of the violence that Americans have seen in California, and New York State is similarly employing sanctuary city policies to prevent illegal aliens from apprehension."
She added, “This latest lawsuit in a series of sanctuary city litigation underscores the Department of Justice’s commitment to keeping Americans safe and aggressively enforcing the law.”’
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected a request for review of the lower-court ruling to enforce the new illegal immigration law, which is a crushing blow to the state.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier argued, “Illegal immigration continues to wreak havoc in the State, while that law cannot be enforced."
He went on, “And without this Court’s intervention, Florida and its citizens will remain disabled from combating the serious harms of illegal immigration for years as this litigation proceeds through the lower courts.”
This is clearly a setback for Florida, but in the overall scheme of things, this could be a good thing, as the Court is again showing that immigration is a federal issue, which will benefit Bondi in her case against sanctuary cities. We may have lost this battle, but it could set the stage to win the war.
In 99 out of 100 cases, the Court will cede authority to the federal government on immigration, but there are sometimes exceptions to that rule.
For instance, when Joe Biden was in office, Texas argued that the federal government was not doing its job, and the state won several immigration-related suits.
One of the big cases, for instance, was one in which Texas was allowed to enable local law enforcement to arrest illegals. The Court also kicked down the Rio Grande buoy case, which eventually fell in Texas’ favor.
I would not look at the loss in Florida as a true defeat. To me, it is a sacrificial lamb required to make our case against sanctuary cities much stronger. I now feel more confident than ever that if the Court finally takes this issue on, we will win.