And he\u2019s been one of the best additions to the Court in its distinguished history. He knows the Constitution like the back of his hand. So, when a decision is made that seems injurious to the nation\u2019s founding document, he responds like a parent trying to protect a child.<\/p>\n
Justice Clarence Thomas took his fellow justices to task on Tuesday after a majority of the Court refused to hear a lawsuit brought by Florida against Washington and California.<\/p>\n
Justice Clarence Thomas accused California and Washington of undermining federal immigration and trucking safety standards following a deadly Florida highway crash, criticizing the Supreme Court on Tuesday for refusing to hear a case that Florida had \u201cnowhere else to bring.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Florida alleged that the two blue states improperly issued commercial driver\u2019s licenses to undocumented immigrants in violation of federal standards requiring English proficiency and lawful immigration status for certain commercial drivers. The state argued that these policies created a public safety threat on American roads.<\/p>\n Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, said the Supreme Court had a constitutional obligation to hear the dispute because lawsuits between states can only be brought before the nation\u2019s highest court.<\/p>\n \u201cIf this Court does not exercise jurisdiction over a controversy between two States, then the complaining State has no judicial forum in which to seek relief,\u201d Thomas wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n There is only one court in the country that can hear lawsuits between states: the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n More:<\/strong><\/p>\n Thomas argued that Florida\u2019s allegations against Washington and California were serious because failing to comply with federal commercial licensing laws can create dangerous road conditions and, he said, has contributed to deadly crashes.<\/p>\n Thomas pointed to a fatal Florida highway crash involving truck driver Harjinder Singh, whom he said \u201ccould not read the road signs,\u201d and argued that Florida deserved an opportunity to pursue its claims.<\/p>\n Thomas argued that people who are not legally authorized to be in the country and cannot read road signs in English should not be allowed to drive 80,000-pound tractor-trailers on American highways.<\/p>\n \u201cFederal law and regulations prohibit States from providing commercial driver\u2019s licenses to applicants unless they pass a driver\u2019s test, sufficiently understand the English language, and show appropriate immigration status,\u201d Thomas noted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Thomas wrote that while the Court may exercise discretion when deciding whether to hear ordinary appeals, disputes between states stand on a different constitutional footing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have no more right to decline the exercise of jurisdiction which is given, than to usurp that which is not given,\u201d Thomas wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Supporters of Thomas\u2019s position argue that he is right that Florida should have a judicial forum in which to pursue its claims concerning the deaths of three residents.<\/p>\n Critics, however, may dispute the characterization that the deaths were \u201cin vain\u201d or that Washington and California \u201cget off scot-free,\u201d since the Court\u2019s refusal to hear the case does not itself establish that either state violated federal law or caused the deaths.<\/p>\n Still, the decision has sparked strong criticism from Thomas and Alito, who believe the Supreme Court has a fundamental role in resolving disputes between states. The disagreement highlights a broader constitutional debate over when the Court must exercise its original jurisdiction and when it may decline to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And he\u2019s been one of the best additions to the Court in its distinguished history. He knows the Constitution like the back of his hand. So, when a decision is made that seems injurious to the nation\u2019s founding document, he responds like a parent trying to protect a child. Justice Clarence Thomas took his fellow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":742,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions\/742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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