TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Aug 18, 2020

Attorneys for the federal government last week asked the U.S. Supreme Court to refuse to hear Tennessee’s lawsuit over refugee resettlement, the Tennessean reports. The filing stems from a 2017 lawsuit in which the state claimed the federal government was forcing states to pay for refugee resettlement, violating the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The federal government claims the state lacks standing because they did not show any form of injury and they also take issue with the state Attorney General’s refusal to back the lawsuit, which forced the state to hire outside counsel. They also claim Tennessee has overblown its claim of being coerced to pay for resettlement costs. The state’s writ of certiorari comes after its case was dismissed by a federal judge in 2018 and again by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019.