{"id":80265,"date":"2025-12-24T17:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T17:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/80265\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T17:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T17:11:07","slug":"judge-backs-new-yorks-green-light-law-delivering-blow-to-trump-admin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/80265\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge backs New York’s ‘Green Light’ Law, delivering blow to Trump admin"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge on Tuesday cleared the way for New York\u2019s so-called Green Light Law<\/a>, ruling against the Trump administration\u2019s effort to block the state from giving people driver\u2019s licenses without requiring proof that they are in the US legally.<\/p>\n

US District Judge Anne M. Nardacci found that the Justice Department \u2014 which sued New York Gov.\u00a0Kathy Hochul\u00a0and state Attorney General Letitia James in February<\/a> \u2014 had failed to prove its claims that the state law sought to invalidate federal law or that the measure unlawfully regulates or unlawfully discriminates against the federal government.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said from the start, our laws protect the rights of all New Yorkers and keep our communities safe,\u201d James said in a statement. \u201cI will always stand up for New Yorkers and the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

US Attorney General\u00a0Pam Bondi\u00a0alleged when announcing the lawsuit that Hochul and James were prioritizing \u201cillegal aliens over American citizens,\u201d as the controversial state law blocks federal agents trying to enforce immigration laws from seeing\u00a0illegal immigrants\u2019\u00a0criminal driving records during traffic stops.<\/p>\n

A federal judge ruled the Justice Department had failed to prove its claims that New York\u2019s Green Light Law sought to invalidate federal law. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Justice Department had sued New York Gov.\u00a0Kathy Hochul\u00a0(from left) and state Attorney General Letitia James in February over the legislation. Susan Watts\/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul<\/p>\n

Nardacci wrote in her ruling that her job was not to evaluate the desirability of the law as a policy matter, but to determine whether the Trump administration\u2019s arguments prove its claims that the statute violates the US Constitution\u2019s Supremacy Clause, which establishes that federal laws overrule state laws.<\/p>\n

The administration has \u201cfailed to state such a claim,\u201d Nardacci wrote.<\/p>\n

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Attorney General\u00a0Pam Bondi\u00a0alleged when announcing the lawsuit that Hochul and James were prioritizing \u201cillegal aliens over American citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Green Light Law, also known as the Driver\u2019s License Access and Privacy Act, was adopted, in part, to improve road safety, as people sometimes drove without a license or without having passed a driving test. Under the measure, it is easier for these license holders to receive auto insurance.<\/p>\n

The law states that people who do not have a valid Social Security number can submit alternative forms of ID, including valid passports and driver\u2019s licenses issued in other countries. Applicants must still receive a driver\u2019s permit and pass a road test to qualify for a \u201cstandard driver\u2019s license.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the Green Light Law, also known as the Driver\u2019s License Access and Privacy Act, license holders would more easily receive auto insurance. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The legislation does not apply to commercial driver\u2019s licenses (CDLs).<\/p>\n

The DOJ\u2019s lawsuit argued that the law was \u201ca frontal assault on the federal immigration laws, and the federal authorities that administer them,\u201d citing a provision that requires the state\u2019s DMV commissioner to notify people who are in the country illegally when a federal immigration agency has requested their information.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit further claimed that it could be easier to enforce the Trump administration\u2019s immigration agenda if federal authorities had unrestricted access to\u00a0New York\u2019s driver information.<\/p>\n

The Green Light Law took effect in 2019, but came under renewed scrutiny following\u00a0a fatal shootout\u00a0in Vermont in January that left a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent dead near the northern border with Canada after a traffic stop involving a German national.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny information that can help law enforcement stay safe as they conduct their duties has pretty much been taken away with this Green Light Law,\u201d Hector Garza, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council,\u00a0told Fox News Digital\u00a0at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat [the Green Light Law] does, is that it prevents law enforcement agents from getting any type of information in regards to any registrations that the state has,\u201d Garza added. \u201cFor example, before we engage in traffic stops, typically law enforcement will always conduct a vehicle registration check to see if there\u2019s any warrants to see if that person is considered armed and dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Nardacci, echoing an appeals court ruling in a county clerk\u2019s earlier challenge to the law, wrote that the information \u201cremains available to federal immigration authorities\u201d through a lawful court order or judicial warrant.<\/p>\n

New York is one of a dozen states that allows illegals to drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge on Tuesday cleared the way for New York\u2019s so-called Green Light Law, ruling against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19688,153,3409,2301,4234,57,9,24,55,54,56,58],"class_list":["post-80265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-citizenship","tag-donald-trump","tag-drivers-license","tag-immigration","tag-judges","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}