An appeals court Wednesday rejected California’s mandate that federal immigration agents wear identification, asserting it violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
California’s No Vigilantes Act, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year, requires nonuniformed law enforcement officers to display their agency and name or badge number during arrests, detentions, and crowd control enforcement. The law, aimed at regulating Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, established misdemeanor penalties for noncompliant agents.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court ruling upholding the law.
“The Supremacy Clause prohibits States from directly regulating federal operations even when regulating state operations in the same manner,” 9th Circuit Judge Mark Bennett, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote for the majority.
California contends the law was permissible under the Supremacy Clause since it didn’t exclusively interfere with federal operations.
However, the 9th Circuit determined even minimal interference is a state directly regulating federal activity.
“In sum, if a state law directly regulates the governmental conduct of the United States without congressional authorization, it is void irrespective of whether the regulated activities are essential to federal functions or operations, and irrespective of the degree to which the state law interferes with such functions or operations,” Bennett wrote.
In February, U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder, appointed by President Bill Clinton, upheld the No Vigilantes Act.
The 9th Circuit ruling put a preliminary injunction on the California law, saying the Trump administration is “certain” to prevail in its case.
“So as applied to federal agencies and federal officers carrying out their duties under federal authority, the statute is invalid in all applications,” the ruling says. “The United States is therefore likely— indeed, certain—to succeed on the merits of its facial challenge to constitutionality.”
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
