Supreme Court Backs Trump Administration on Immigration Judges, Rejects Florida's Interstate Lawsuit
The Supreme Court unanimously reversed a lower court ruling on immigration judge speech restrictions while declining to hear Florida's lawsuit challenging other states' issuance of commercial licenses to undocumented immigrants.
The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a decisive victory on May 26, unanimously reversing a lower appeals court in a ruling that bolsters executive authority over immigration enforcement and reinforces the boundaries of judicial power.
The 9-0 decision in Margolin v. National Association of Immigration Judges delivers a clear rebuke of what the high court characterized as judicial overreach. The ruling channels the dispute back through Congress's designated administrative process and signals the Court's alignment with strict immigration enforcement and administrative order.
An unsigned per curiam opinion dismantled the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision, holding that federal courts cannot become "roving commissions" that "sally forth each day looking for wrongs to right." Immigration judges must follow the Civil Service Reform Act's administrative process rather than filing direct lawsuits challenging workplace speech restrictions.
About 750 immigration judges employed by the Executive Office for Immigration Review challenged an October 2021 policy requiring supervisory approval for "official" speeches and conference presentations. The administration designed the policy to ensure judicial statements align with agency positions when judges speak in their official capacity. Judges retain the freedom to address unrelated topics in their personal capacity.
The 4th Circuit violated the "party-presentation principle" by reviving the lawsuit on grounds the National Association of Immigration Judges had not raised, the Supreme Court found. That procedural error allowed a lower court to expand access beyond the channels Congress specifically created, undermining the statutory grievance system established by federal law.
"This unanimous result reflects a key principle we fight for: judges should be judges resolving the case before them, and should never try to seize Congress's role," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated after the ruling. "This opinion sends a clear message: lower courts must accept that the law is the law, no matter the political controversies of the day."
The decision routes the dispute through the Merit Systems Protection Board's administrative process rather than permitting a merits-based First Amendment ruling. That administrative pathway, established by the Civil Service Reform Act, represents the exclusive route for federal employee workplace grievances.
Holly A. D'Andrea, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, asserted that "the litigation is far from over." The Supreme Court's denial of the NAIJ's cross-petition, however, suggests the speech restrictions will likely survive administrative review despite the MSPB's ongoing recusal crisis.
The MSPB has recused itself more than 140 times since its quorum was restored, leaving approximately 40 percent of cases without a quorum decision according to April 2026 Bloomberg Law analysis. That dysfunction formed the basis of the 4th Circuit's original concern about whether Congress's intended administrative process remained functional.
In a separate ruling the same day, the Supreme Court rejected Florida's attempt to sue California and Washington over their issuance of commercial driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. The 7-2 denial came without explanation. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the refusal to hear the interstate dispute.
Florida's lawsuit traces back to an Aug. 12, 2025, fatal crash on Florida's Turnpike that killed three people. Harjinder Singh, an Indian national federal authorities say entered the U.S. illegally, made an illegal U-turn in a restricted area. A minivan collided with his trailer.
Post-crash testing by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration found Singh could identify only one of four highway signs and failed most verbal proficiency questions. He held commercial licenses from both California and Washington at the time of the crash.
"Basic English skills are critical for safely operating a commercial motor vehicle — reading road signs, following emergency instructions, and communicating with law enforcement are not optional," said Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. "The fatal crash in Florida this month tragically illustrates what's at stake."
Federal audits reveal systemic enforcement failures in states issuing licenses to immigrant truckers. California conducted approximately 34,000 commercial vehicle inspections but pulled only one driver for English violations. Washington identified more than 6,000 safety rule violations but pulled only four drivers for language proficiency issues.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has threatened to withhold federal funding from California, Washington, and New Mexico for failing to enforce English proficiency and immigration verification rules. "This is about keeping people safe on the road," Duffy stated in August 2025. "We need to be sure that those who are driving big rigs can understand the road signs."
California Attorney General Rob Bonta countered that Florida's allegations were "notably lacking" and based on false assumptions about state licensing procedures. Washington Attorney General Nicholas Brown called the lawsuit a "political stunt" that could open the door to nuisance claims over divergent state policies on vaccination or firearms.
Justice Thomas argued in his dissent that the Court holds "exclusive original jurisdiction" over disputes between states and "cannot refuse to hear suits between States." He noted that crashes involving immigrant truckers with deficient English skills have become "disturbingly common" across the country.
The back-to-back rulings underscore the Supreme Court's willingness to rein in lower courts that overstep their statutory mandates while validating the administration's commitment to secure borders and accountable bureaucracy. The decisions follow the Court's March 2026 ruling requiring federal appeals courts to defer to immigration judges on asylum decisions.
The Margolin case now returns to the 4th Circuit for proceedings consistent with the Supreme Court's opinion. The denial of the cross-petition signals that the Trump administration's speech restrictions will face only administrative review, where the MSPB's dysfunction may prove the judges' most formidable obstacle.
Three lives ended on a Florida highway because a man behind the wheel of a commercial rig could not read the signs. Federal audits show enforcement failures stretching across thousands of inspections. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case that Florida brought in the wake of that tragedy, leaving families like those who lost loved ones on the Turnpike to wait for answers that may never come through the courtroom.