Good news for our California law enforcement: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in your favor!
I applaud all our law enforcement officials who have pledged to obey our state law, SB 54.
This law, known as the California Values Act, also referred to as the Sanctuary Law, went into effect on Jan. 1, 2018. It prevents our law enforcement from directly cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) and prevents them from using any resources to assist I.C.E.
The U.S. Supreme Court supported this law in their ruling in June 2020.
In the Gilroy Dispatch issue dated June 19, 2020, County Counsel James R. Williams
was quoted as saying, “Today [June 15,2020] the Supreme Court also rejected the Trump Administration’s misguided effort to overturn California’s Sanctuary laws, [thus] preserving state and local decision-making about how to use state and local resources.”
Thank you to the U.S. Supreme Court for its wisdom.
Bettsy Lima
Gilroy
Dear Friends,
While the U.S. Supreme Court did not accept the appeal of the 9th Circuit decision, reports today show that the Administration is once again asking that paramount federal law be obeyed notwithstanding contrary State laws. See attached below.
Thank you.
Joe Thompson
(408) 848-5506
REPORT:
DOJ files lawsuit against sanctuary policies in Illinois, Cook County, and the city of Chicago
AgenciesCourtsProject 2025 February 7, 2025
On February 6, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) under its new Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi, filed its first lawsuit targeting so-called sanctuary jurisdictions in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois, against the state of Illinois, Cook County, and the city of Chicago. DOJ’s lawsuit seeks to invalidate state and local laws, including the Way Forward Act and the TRUST Act, Chicago’s Welcoming City Act, and Cook County Ordinance 11-O-73, with DOJ arguing that those laws are preempted by federal immigration law and discriminate against the federal government, because they impede the federal government’s ability to carry out its immigration enforcement activities.
In general, sanctuary policies aim to limit cooperation between state and local law enforcement officials and federal immigration enforcement. However, they do not seek to prohibit, restrict, or impede federal immigration enforcement officials from carrying out their duties, and in fact, they may freely arrest and attempt to remove persons who lack an immigration status in those jurisdictions. What sanctuary laws and ordinances do is clarify that the federal government may not compel state or local jurisdictions to use their resources to assist federal officials in their efforts to enforce immigration laws.
During the first Trump administration, Attorney General (AG) Jeff Sessions sued the state of California over similar policies that are part of the state’s main sanctuary law, Senate Bill 54 (2017), also known as the California Values Act. AG Sessions’ lawsuit against California argued—similarly to AG Bondi’s lawsuit—that the Values Act is preempted by federal law, and that it “interferes with federal immigration authorities’ ability to carry out their responsibilities under federal law.” In 2019, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the California Values Act did not impede enforcement of federal immigration law. The Trump administration then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court declined to take up the case, leaving the California Values Act intact.