Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California blocked the Trump administration's $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications in Global Nurse Force v. Trump. Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. held that the fee violated the Administrative Procedure Act because the administration skipped required notice-and-comment rulemaking, according to a Reason article by Eugene Volokh.
Volokh notes this is the second ruling against the fee. In June, a federal district court in Massachusetts struck it down on different grounds, concluding that the fee usurped Congress's taxing power and that the relevant statutes did not delegate that authority; that court also found an APA violation. The First Circuit declined to stay that injunction, so the California decision has no immediate practical impact.
Still, Volokh argues the second ruling matters because it gives opponents multiple legal theories and may signal how appellate courts will view the policy. He says he plans to file an amicus brief supporting the Massachusetts decision in the First Circuit alongside the Cato Institute and Professor Michael McConnell.