Comment on Judge revisits ruling that blocked Florida from criminalizing transport of immigrants

A day after blocking part of a state law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration, a federal judge Thursday appeared to have second thoughts about the scope of a preliminary injunction he issued. U.S. District Judge Roy Altman initially applied the injunction statewide. But he issued an order Thursday that partially quoted an Arkansas case and said on “further reflection, and given the ‘national conversation taking place in both the legal academy and the judiciary concerning the propriety of courts using universal injunctions as a matter of preliminary relief,’ we now invite further briefing on the proper scope of the injunction.” Altman, who was appointed as a judge in the federal Southern District of Florida in 2018 by former President Donald Trump, ordered attorneys for the plaintiffs and the state to file briefs by June 6 on whether the injunction should apply to plaintiffs who have established legal standing; all plaintiffs who remain in the case; throughout the Southern District; or statewide. The lawsuit, filed in July by The Farmworker Association of Florida, Inc.