The GEO Group, Inc. v. Bob Ferguson, Governor of Washington, et al.

Like the pending petition in GEO Group, Inc. v. Nwauzor, No. 25-828 (filed Jan. 9, 2026), this petition involves yet another attempt by Washington State to dictate federal immigration detention policy by targeting private companies providing services to the federal government. Petitioner provides services under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) at the Northwest ICE Processing Center (“NWIPC”) in Tacoma, Washington. Washington disagrees with the federal government’s immigration policies and tried to shut down operations at the NWIPC altogether by passing a law banning private parties from operating detention centers within the state’s borders. After courts halted a similar California ban as blatantly unlawful, Washington tried another tack: It enacted comprehensive regulations micromanaging nearly every aspect of day-to-day operations at the NWIPC— and that facility alone. The district court preliminarily enjoined that effort, concluding that it violates the Supremacy Clause’s intergovernmentalimmunity doctrine. But the Ninth Circuit vacated, reasoning that Washington’s law can survive because it targets a federal contractor rather than the federal government itself. The question presented is: Whether the Supremacy Clause permits a state to enact a law micromanaging the details of how a federal contractor must provide services at a federal detention facility, while exempting the state’s own detention facilities from all those requirements.