A Los Angeles federal judge Monday blocked California from enforcing a new law limiting when federal agents can wear masks while engaged in deportation operations, but she upheld a second law requiring local, state and federal law enforcement personnel to display their name or badge number while on duty.
U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder rejected the Trump administration’s claim that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents need to wear masks to prevent doxing, meaning the online disclosure of agents’ personal information that could lead to harassment or targeting. But in her ruling, the judge said California’s No Secret Police Act appears to discriminate against the federal government because the law’s provisions do not apply to state or local law enforcement officers.
Snyder wrote that the act “treats federal law enforcement officers differently than similarly situated state law enforcement officers.”
But the judge upheld the No Vigilantes Act, a separate new state law which requires most local, state and federal law enforcement personnel to display their name or badge number while on duty.
The laws, passed by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, came in the wake of the Trump administration’s illegal immigration raids in Southern California in the summer, during which masked, unidentified federal officers detained people as part of the president’s mass deportation program.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the state laws were unconstitutional and endanger federal officers.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued California, Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta in September, challenging what the federal government claims is an “unconstitutional” attempt to impede federal law enforcement by imposing the mask ban and identification requirement on officers.
The laws made California the first state in the nation to prohibit federal law enforcement, including agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, from hiding their identities, and requiring non-uniformed federal law enforcement to visibly display identification information, including agency, name or badge number during enforcement duties.
Senior U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder, a nominee of President Bill Clinton, heard the DOJ’s arguments for a preliminary injunction that aims to pause the ordinance.
The laws took effect Jan. 1, but are not being enforced while their constitutionality is challenged in court.
“A federal court upheld California’s law requiring federal agents to identify themselves — a clear win for the rule of law,” Newsom said in a statement Monday. “No badge and no name mean no accountability. California will keep standing up for civil rights and our democracy.”