A federal appeals court has halted a California law that requires visible identification for law enforcement, including immigration agents, agreeing with the Trump administration on Wednesday that the mandate is likely unconstitutional.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit had put the law briefly on hold until it could take a closer look. The new ruling keeps enforcement paused until the court fully resolves the case, which may take months.
The Justice Department sued California and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) after he signed the No Vigilantes Act, which demands that non-uniformed law enforcement operating in California “shall visibly display identification.”
It followed the Trump administration’s ramp-up last summer of immigration enforcement in the Los Angeles area. It has spilled over to the courts, where Trump’s Justice Department and the state have been embroiled in litigation on various aspects of the president’s immigration crackdown.
In fighting the identification requirement, the Trump administration argues it directly regulates the federal government in violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
“And that is precisely what the No Vigilantes Act does,” U.S. Circuit Judge Mark Bennett wrote for the court.
