Trump admin can’t punish New York over immigrant truckers, Second Circuit rules

The Department of Transportation sought to use federal funding to force New York to suspend certain immigrant drivers' licenses.MANHATTAN (CN) — The Second Circuit on Friday blocked the Department of Transportation’s move to withhold more than $73 million in federal highway funding to New York, finding the state was unlawfully punished over a licensing rule for immigrant commercial drivers.U.S. Circuit Judge Allison Nathan, a Joe Biden appointee, wrote that the agency tried to impose stricter standards on noncitizen truckers “out of regulatory silence,” an effort she said “falls flat.”Earlier this year, the department found that New York unlawfully refused to cancel commercial driver’s licenses, or CDLs, for certain immigrant drivers. New York countered that the government had abruptly imposed new documentation requirements.“It is a textbook post hoc rationalization,” New York Assistant Solicitor General Anthony Raduazo said during oral arguments in September.Nathan agreed, writing Friday that the department’s position “runs afoul of fair notice principles, departs from the regulatory text and underestimates the complexity of its supposedly ‘common sense’ requirement.”U.S. Circuit Judge Sarah Merriam, also a Biden appointee, joined Nathan’s 21-page order. U.S. Circuit Judge Matthew Schwartz, a Donald Trump appointee, agreed with the judgment but wrote separately that his colleagues’ analysis went too far.“The majority concludes that New York can win this case purely on the plain text of the regulations at issue,” he wrote. “Under the established precedent, that should be the end of our analysis. Nevertheless, the majority proceeds to comment gratuitously on regulatory structure and history in ways that could affect other cases.”Regardless, the trio’s rulings ensure that the Department of Transportation cannot withhold the highway funding on this basis. An agency spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did one for New York Governor Kathy Hochul.Earlier this year, Hochul said that the funding cuts were “nothing more than political payback.”“New York has always followed federal rules when issuing CDLs, something even the previous Trump administration verified year after year,” she said in April. “Ripping away money that goes toward critical safety upgrades on our roads is reckless and it is illegal.”The Department of Transportation announced in April it would withhold $73.5 million in highway funding and threatened to withhold another $147 million in future years. New York officials argued Congress had allocated the money for road maintenance, safety improvements and infrastructure projects that could be disrupted by the cuts.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy accused New York of failing to keep Americans “safe from unvetted, unqualified foreign drivers” by refusing to cancel certain immigrant truckers’ CDLs. The department sought to limit the licenses’ validity to the duration of drivers’ other documentation, a requirement the court found had no legal basis.New York filed directly with the Second Circuit under federal law requiring challenges to final Transportation Department decisions to bypass lower courts. California has a similar case pending before the D.C. Circuit, which heard arguments in September.Under Duffy, the Department of Transportation has repeatedly sought to use federal transit funding to further the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Last year, a federal judge slammed the agency for its “blatantly” unconstitutional attempt to withhold federal cash from so-called sanctuary states and cities.The department has also sought to collect millions of commercial driver records to turn over to the Department of Homeland Security for immigration enforcement.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads