A US federal judge has refused to block Arizona’s Republican governor from denying driver’s licenses to young immigrants granted temporary legal status by the federal government.

Civil rights groups had filed a lawsuit in US district court in Phoenix in November against Governor Jan Brewer and two state transportation department officials on behalf of five Mexican immigrants who qualify for deferred deportation status under a program pushed by President Barack Obama.

The suit challenged the legality of an order issued by Brewer in August that denied the young migrants licenses, arguing that the federal deferred action program did not give them lawful status or entitle them to public benefits.

Judge David Campbell ruled that while the young immigrants appeared likely to prevail in their argument on constitutional equal-protection grounds, they had not proved they would suffer irreparable injury as the case proceeds. “The court concludes that plaintiffs have not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their supremacy clause claim,” Campbell noted in a written ruling denying the motion for a preliminary injunction.

“Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their equal-protection claim, but the court finds that they have not shown a likelihood of irreparable injury and have not otherwise met the high burden for a mandatory injunction,” he added.

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