CoreCivic Inc v. Governor of New Jersey
Split Score
What is a Split Score?
This score (0-100) indicates how likely this case is to be reviewed by the Supreme Court based on:
Case Summary
Disposition
Affirmed
CoreCivic sued to block a New Jersey statute that bars any new, renewed, or extended contracts to house civil immigration detainees in privately run facilities. The Third Circuit held that the statute directly regulates and substantially interferes with the federal government’s immigration-detention function, violating the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, and it therefore affirmed the district court’s judgment in favor of CoreCivic.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether state statutes that ban private entities from contracting with the federal government to provide civil immigration-detention services violate the Supremacy Clause by infringing intergovernmental immunity (and/or are pre-empted by federal immigration statutes).
Circuit Positions
State ban on private immigration-detention contracts violates intergovernmental immunity under the Supremacy Clause.
State ban on private immigration-detention contracts is permissible; it regulates only private/local entities and does not violate intergovernmental immunity.
Conflict Summary
The circuits disagree on whether state laws that prohibit private immigration-detention contracts impermissibly intrude on federal power. The Third and Ninth Circuits hold that such bans directly regulate or substantially interfere with federal immigration functions and therefore violate intergovernmental immunity. The Seventh Circuit holds that comparable state restrictions merely regulate private or local actors, do not directly regulate the United States, and are therefore permissible.