The US Supreme Court refused to override a lower court order preventing Florida from enforcing a new state law that criminalizes the presence, in the state, of individuals not legally present in the country.
Last week the US Supreme Court denied Florida’s application for permission to enforce a new state law. That order was issued on July 9, and prohibits Florida from directing local law enforcement to act in accordance with the recent legislation and will allow the lower court case to move forward with that standard in place until the matter is resolved. The legislation in question was Florida SB 4-C which seeks to criminalize the entry into or presence within Florida of anyone who has illegally entered the United States. As previously covered on Conduit Street, the case Uthmeier v. Florida Immigrant Coalition was on the US Supreme Court shadow docket and pending a decision.
Recent proposed legislation in Maryland has looked to strike a balance between protecting immigrant communities and ensuring public safety. MACo took positions on a handful of these bills. While nothing as significant as the Florida law has been proposed in Maryland, the denial to stay the injunction gives some indication as to what the highest court views the state or local role to be in the enforcement of federal immigration and customs laws. The bigger question in Maryland is whether future state laws could inadvertently prohibit certain actions by local government that put them in violation of federal law and vice versa. The continuation of this case could inform some of that.
As a for instance, SB 977 during the 2025 Maryland legislative session initially prohibited local governments from sharing information with federal agencies without a judicial warrant if it was known to, or seemed to, be for the purpose of immigration enforcement. Multiple federal agencies can play a role in immigration enforcement most notably, the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Labor (DOL). In a circumstance where a DOL agent requests the I-9 of a specific employee from a local government without a judicial warrant, it would be a violation of federal law and potentially obstruction of an investigation if they did not provide the information. The US DOL currently can request I-9 forms from any employer with or without warning, and certainly without a judicial warrant.
The lower court case in Florida will likely attempt to answer questions about the constitutionality of the Florida law and inform local governments on some of the broad boundaries and guard rails around what jurisdictions can and can not do. This could influence any additional measures the General Assembly in Maryland might attempt to establish in this area.
