9th Circuit blocks California limits on anonymous immigration agents
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Trump administration in striking down a California requirement that immigration agents show visible identification while on duty.
Written by Nigel Duara, CalMatters
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A federal appeals court on Wednesday struck down California’s requirement that masked federal agents identify themselves, a blow to the state’s ongoing resistance to the Trump administration’s deportation program.
A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel handed down a ruling prohibiting California from enforcing a section of the 2025 law that mandates federal law enforcement officers visibly display identification while carrying out their duties.
The law was destined to face critical scrutiny from the federal judiciary. An 1890 Supreme Court case provides that a state cannot prosecute federal law enforcement officers acting in the course of their duties.
The law also ran headlong into the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which holds that states may not regulate the operations of the federal government.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it in connection with a law that banned federal immigration agents from wearing masks. The Trump administration sued to challenge both of them.
On Feb. 19, a federal judge issued an injunction against the mask law. The new ruling by a 3-0 decision focuses on the identification requirement.
“If a state law directly regulates the conduct of the United States, 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 federal functions or operations,” wrote judge Mark J. Bennett.
California’s lawyers argued that, even if the law does violate the Supremacy Clause, the court should have also considered the state government’s concerns about federal immigration enforcement’s effect on public safety.
“We decline to do so,” Bennett wrote. “Because the United States has shown a likelihood that the Act violates the Supremacy Clause, it has also shown that both the public interest and balance of the equities tip ‘decisively in…favor’ of a preliminary injunction.”
Democrats passed the law, called the “No Vigilantes Act”, to rein in the federal officers who showed up in masks and without visible identification as they carried out the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Lawmakers this year are advancing more bills targeting the administration’s immigration agents, including proposals that would bar them from employment in California law enforcement agencies and a measure that would make it easier for people to sue federal agents over civil rights violations.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche crowed about the 9th Circuit ruling on social media.
“This Department of Justice stands in unwavering and total support of the brave men and women of ICE who put their lives on the line everyday to enforce our immigration laws and keep American citizens safe,” he wrote. :Today’s legal victory in the 9th Circuit halts enforcement of California’s mask ban for ICE agents and is a big win to protect law enforcement.”
