While governors in at least 30 states have responded to recent terrorist attacks in Paris by saying that their states will not accept Syrian refugees, their refusal of refugees may not agree with federal law.

Judge Andrew Napolitano, the senior judicial analyst for Fox News, told Stuart Varney on Fox Business Networks's "Varney & Co." on Tuesday that while governors can legally say they don't want to accept refugees, they can't legally interfere with the process under federal law.

They can legally say what they want, but they can't really interfere with what the federal government does. I say this because my heart is with the governors, but nevertheless, the court has ruled that the admission of immigrants – whether for humanitarian purposes, political asylum purposes, or pursuant to the quotas that we have – is strictly a federal function.

As of Tuesday night, 31 states have opposed acceptance of Syrian refugees. In those states, which "range from Alabama and Georgia, to Texas and Arizona, to Michigan and Illinois, to Maine and New Hampshire," only one does not have a Republican governor, which is New Hampshire.