First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals handed California a major defeat on Wednesday, ruling that the state cannot force federal law-enforcement officers to identify themselves under Gov. Gavin Newsom's “No Vigilantes Act.” A three-judge panel directed the lower court to enter a preliminary injunction blocking the law's identification requirement, and said the Trump administration is “certain to succeed” in its lawsuit against the state.
“Section 10 explicitly overrides the federal government's power to determine whether, how, and when to publicly identify its officers.”
The act, which Newsom signed last year, required nonuniformed officers — a rule aimed at ICE agents — to display their agency and name or badge number during arrests, detentions and crowd-control operations, with misdemeanor penalties for agents who did not comply. Writing for the majority, Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, held that the Supremacy Clause bars states from directly regulating federal operations, and the panel added that how heavily a state rule burdens federal operations is “irrelevant” once it directly regulates them. The ruling reversed U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder, a Clinton appointee who had upheld the identification requirement in February. The administration sued California last November over both the No Vigilantes Act and a companion measure, the No Secret Police Act; Snyder blocked that law's mask restriction for federal officers but let the identification rule stand, and the appeals court had already paused the rule temporarily in February while the case moved forward.
Justice Department officials celebrated. “The Ninth Circuit agrees that California cannot regulate federal law enforcement,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote on X, and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. called the ruling a “huge WIN for protecting the safety of our Nation's law enforcement officers.” The decision is a blow to Newsom, a leading Trump antagonist and possible 2028 contender — and it came from the liberal-leaning Ninth Circuit, which has clashed with this administration for years. Fox News Digital reported it reached out to Newsom's office for comment.
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