Judge green lights New York’s driver’s license law, rejecting a Trump administration challenge
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge gave the green light Tuesday to New York’s so-called Green Light Law, rejecting the Trump administration’s bid to stop the state. give people licenses without having to prove that they are in the country legally.
U.S. District Judge Anne M. Nardacci in Albany ruled that the Republican administration, which challenged the law as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, did not support its claims that the state law usurps federal law or unlawfully regulates or unlawfully discriminates against the federal government.
The Justice Department sued the state over the law in February, naming Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, as defendants. At a news conference announcing the lawsuit, U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi accused the officials, both Democrats, of prioritizing “illegal aliens over American citizens.”
“As I have said from the beginning, our laws protect the rights of all New Yorkers and keep our communities safe,” James said in a statement Friday. “I will always defend New Yorkers and the rule of law.”
A message seeking comment was left with the Department of Justice.
Nardacci, who was appointed to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden, wrote that his job is not to evaluate the desirability of the Green Light Act as a matter of policy. Instead, he said in the 23-page opinion, the Trump administration’s arguments were to evaluate whether the law had been found to violate the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which gives federal law priority over state laws.
He wrote that the administration “made no such claim.”
The Green Light Act was enacted in part to improve public safety on the roads; because people without a driver’s license sometimes drove without having a license or without passing the road test. The government also makes it easier for such license holders to obtain auto insurance, thereby reducing accidents involving uninsured drivers.
By law, people who do not have a valid Social Security number may present alternative forms of identification, including valid passports and driver’s licenses issued in other countries. Applicants still need to obtain a permit and pass a road test to qualify for a “standard driver’s licence.” Does not apply to commercial driver’s licenses.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit sought to repeal the law as “a frontal assault on federal immigration laws and the federal officials who administer them.” He highlighted a provision that requires the commissioner of the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to notify people who are in the country illegally when the federal immigration agency requests their information.
In 2020, during Trump’s first term, the administration tried to pressure New York to change the law by banning anyone from the state from enrolling in trusted traveler programs; This meant they would spend longer going through security lines at airports.
Then-governor Andrew Cuomo offered to restore access to federal driver records on a limited basis, but said he would not allow immigration agents to see the list of people who applied for special licenses available to immigrants who cannot prove they are legal residents of the United States. After a brief legal battle, the administration eventually restored New Yorkers’ access to the trusted traveler program.
In the lawsuit, which was dismissed Tuesday, the administration argued that federal immigration priorities could be easier to enforce if federal authorities had unrestricted access to New York’s driver information. Such information is “available to federal immigration officials” through a lawful court order or judicial order, Nardacci wrote, recalling a decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in which a county clerk challenged the law earlier.
