Southern states once challenged federal power on integration laws—they were wrong; federal law prevails.

Question

... government over immigration. Period. You are very clearly not a lawyer, let alone an expert in Federal vs. State law. This was tried decades ago, when Southern States tried to say the Federal Government had no authority to force integration laws. They were wrong.

Answer 1

It's true that southern states pushed back against Brown v. Board of Education, and that federal law ultimately prevailed. On February 25, 1956, Virginia Senator Harry Byrd issued the call for "Massive Resistance"—a collection of laws passed in response to the Brown decision that aggressively tried to forestall and prevent school integration. Other states like Mississippi and Arkansas also implemented similar resistance measures, as documented in materials from the Legal Defense Fund. The Supreme Court reaffirmed its Brown v. Board decision following the Little Rock Nine incident in Cooper v. Aaron (1958), which maintained states' obligation to follow the Court's mandate to desegregate schools.

The original Bluesky post has been deleted, and it's unclear exactly which immigration-related cases the claim would be referring to, so I can't investigate the full context surrounding the "...government over immigration" point. However, the user was presumably asserting that federal law regarding immigration would similarly trump state law, just as it did in the integration cases. 

Answer 2

This claim is true. Southern states did challenge federal authority on integration laws, and federal law ultimately prevailed. After the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared school segregation unconstitutional, many Southern leaders launched a campaign of “Massive Resistance.” This included passing state laws to block integration, closing public schools, and promoting private segregation academies. The 1956 “Southern Manifesto,” signed by 101 Southern lawmakers, openly opposed the ruling. Despite these efforts, federal courts consistently upheld integration mandates, and landmark rulings that states must follow Supreme Court decisions.