Elizabeth Wolford, U.S. District judge for the Western District of New York. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

A lawsuit challenging New York's new law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses was thrown out by a federal judge Friday after she said Erie County Clerk Michael Kearns failed to show the statute will harm him.

That doesn't mean the state's legal troubles over the new law are done—another lawsuit in Albany from Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola is still pending in federal court.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford of the Western District of New York, in the decision handed down Friday, avoided addressing the overall constitutionality of the law, which is what Kearns sued over in July. Instead, Wolford wrote that the challenge should be tossed because Kearns wouldn't be harmed by the measure.

"It is apparent plaintiff disagrees with the Green Light Law," Wolford wrote. "But the mere disagreement with a duly-enacted state statute does not entitle anyone—even an elected official—to seek intervention from a federal court."

Kearns, in a statement Friday afternoon, said he wasn't ruling out an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and called on the Trump administration to get involved.

"The bell has sounded on round one of this fight. We are examining our appeal strategy," Kearns said. "We are calling on the United States Attorney's Office and Attorney General [William] Barr to pay attention to Albany's efforts to make New York state a sanctuary state."

New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office defended the law, said in a statement Friday that the decision reinforced their position that the measure would survive judicial review, which Republicans in the state Legislature had questioned earlier this year.

"The law aims to make our roads safer, our economy stronger, and allows immigrants to come out of the shadows to sign up as legal drivers in our state," James said. "That's why the claims made in this lawsuit not only disregarded these simple truths, but were misinformed and disregarded the privacy rights of New Yorkers."

Kearns sued New York state over the law, saying he could be charged by federal prosecutors if his office allowed undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. That's because, he argued, a section of federal immigration law could be interpreted to criminalize that activity.

Kearns' lawsuit relied on a section of federal law, 8 U.S.C. Section 1324, that makes it a felony for someone to "knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place."

At the same time, Kearns argued, he could be sanctioned by Gov. Andrew Cuomo if he decides not to follow the law. Cuomo, a supporter of the law, has exclusive power to remove county clerks from office in New York.

Kearns said Friday afternoon that, regardless of the decision, he wasn't planning to comply with the law when it's scheduled to take effect next month. Cuomo hasn't said whether he'll take action if county clerks decline to follow the statute.

"If folks who are present in the country illegally want to come to Erie County for a driver's license, let me save them the trip," Kearns said. "I will not be issuing a driver's license to illegal immigrants."

Wolford, in the decision Friday, rejected the argument from Kearns that he would be open to federal criminal charges if he complied with the law and granted driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants.

She wrote that, under the new law, county clerks and their employees would not be allowed to ask applicants about their immigration status. So, she wrote, Kearns wouldn't know whether he was granting a driver's license to an undocumented individual or not.

"Plaintiff has failed to plausibly allege a scenario in which he personally would be on notice of a substantial risk that an individual was in the United States unlawfully and would nonetheless be required to process that individual's driver's license application," Wolford wrote.

She also noted that, even though other states currently have laws on the books allowing driver's licenses for undocumented individuals, the federal government has never prosecuted anyone for complying with such a measure.

"While this fact is not alone dispositive, it supports the conclusion that plaintiff's claimed fear of prosecution is illusory and he has failed to plausibly allege standing," Wolford wrote.

Kearns said in an amended version of his lawsuit that the staff at his office regularly become aware of the immigration status of applicants through the regular course of business.

Wolford wrote that, even if that were true, Kearns wouldn't be personally working the intake counter at the Erie County DMV offices, and that he couldn't rely on potential injuries to his staff to establish standing for the lawsuit.

While nearly all of his arguments against the statute were rebuked by Wolford in the decision, Kearns said the ruling does not bind him to issue driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. He questioned Wolford's argument that he lacked standing to bring the challenge.

"If a county clerk can't bring this lawsuit then who the hell can?" Kearns said.

With the lawsuit from Kearns dismissed, the other challenge from Merola in Albany will now continue. Attorneys for Merola are scheduled to file a motion next week that, if granted, would block the state from enforcing the law next month.