{"id":107938,"date":"2025-02-07T11:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T19:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/07\/trump-admin-files-immigration-trollsuit-against-illinois\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T11:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T19:29:08","slug":"trump-admin-files-immigration-trollsuit-against-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/07\/trump-admin-files-immigration-trollsuit-against-illinois\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Admin Files Immigration Trollsuit Against Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by Win McNamee\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Donald Trump spent the four years between his two presidencies filing garbage lawsuits. Hillary Clinton! The Pulitzer Committee! Twitter! No one was immune.<\/p>\n

Now back in the White House, President Trump is continuing the habit. Yesterday, the Department of Justice sued<\/a> the state of Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker, the City of Chicago, and Cook County in a misbegotten attempt to bully them into becoming federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n

The theory of the case appears to be that, because the Supremacy Clause bars states from creating their own immigration laws, it must a fortiari<\/em> require them to enforce federal immigration laws. And thus state and local ordinances that bar local law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal immigration officials are not only bad public policy, but illegal and even potentially criminal.<\/p>\n

The government complains that the state\u2019s Way Forward Act<\/a> and TRUST Act<\/a>, Chicago\u2019s Welcoming City Act<\/a>, and a similar Cook County municipal ordinance<\/a> \u201care designed to and in fact interfere with and discriminate against the Federal Government\u2019s enforcement of federal immigration law in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.\u201d <\/p>\n

In reality, the laws bar local officials from holding immigrants on civil detainer warrants and from expending state and municipal resources to detain immigrants at the request of the feds absent a criminal warrant. The state laws are very carefully crafted to comply with federal laws<\/a>, and are not<\/em> a blanket ban on communicating with federal immigration authorities \u2014 that\u2019s why the complaint was forced to say that \u201cupon information and belief\u201d local cops are \u201cconfused\u201d by the ordinances and \u201cchilled\u201d from engaging in permitted communications with their federal counterparts. What they are<\/em> is a refusal to allow state officials to be coopted into carrying out federal immigration law, as the Supreme Court has said very clearly they\u2019re entitled to do.<\/p>\n

Just take it from that liberal squish Justice Antonin Scalia, who said in 1997\u2019s Printz v. United States<\/a><\/em>, that the anti-commandeering doctrine barred the federal government from forcing state law enforcement officials to run background checks on gun purchasers as required by the Brady Bill.<\/p>\n

\n

The Federal Government may neither issue directives requiring the States to address particular problems, nor command the States\u2019 officers\u2026 to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program. It matters not whether policymaking is involved, and no case-by-case weighing of the burdens or benefits is necessary; such commands are fundamentally incompatible with our constitutional system of dual sovereignty.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And so the lawsuit bizarrely recasts the refusal to carry out federal policy with obstructing it, accusing the state of \u201cobstructing the Federal Government\u2019s ability to enforce laws that Congress has enacted or to take actions entrusted to it by the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

It then invents a new protected class and accuses the state of \u2026 discriminating against the feds?<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WTF???<\/p>\n

So weird that our new AG felt the need to threaten<\/a> \u201cany attorney who because of their personal political views or judgments declines to sign a brief or appear in court, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Administration\u201d with termination \u2014 how else are you going to get line attorneys to sign off on this shit?<\/p>\n

The DOJ tried<\/a> to designate this case as related to a First Amendment challenge<\/a> to Trump\u2019s immigration executive order filed by a coalition of nonprofits, which would have put them in front of Judge John Kness, a Trump appointee. But no dice \u2014 the case is in front of Judge Lindsay Jenkins, a Biden appointee. An initial status hearing is scheduled for April 15.<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Trump Admin Files Immigration Trollsuit Against Illinois<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by Win McNamee\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Donald Trump spent the four years between his two presidencies filing garbage lawsuits. Hillary Clinton! The Pulitzer Committee! Twitter! No one was immune.<\/p>\n

Now back in the White House, President Trump is continuing the habit. Yesterday, the Department of Justice sued<\/a> the state of Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker, the City of Chicago, and Cook County in a misbegotten attempt to bully them into becoming federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n

The theory of the case appears to be that, because the Supremacy Clause bars states from creating their own immigration laws, it must a fortiari<\/em> require them to enforce federal immigration laws. And thus state and local ordinances that bar local law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal immigration officials are not only bad public policy, but illegal and even potentially criminal.<\/p>\n

The government complains that the state\u2019s Way Forward Act<\/a> and TRUST Act<\/a>, Chicago\u2019s Welcoming City Act<\/a>, and a similar Cook County municipal ordinance<\/a> \u201care designed to and in fact interfere with and discriminate against the Federal Government\u2019s enforcement of federal immigration law in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.\u201d <\/p>\n

In reality, the laws bar local officials from holding immigrants on civil detainer warrants and from expending state and municipal resources to detain immigrants at the request of the feds absent a criminal warrant. The state laws are very carefully crafted to comply with federal laws<\/a>, and are not<\/em> a blanket ban on communicating with federal immigration authorities \u2014 that\u2019s why the complaint was forced to say that \u201cupon information and belief\u201d local cops are \u201cconfused\u201d by the ordinances and \u201cchilled\u201d from engaging in permitted communications with their federal counterparts. What they are<\/em> is a refusal to allow state officials to be coopted into carrying out federal immigration law, as the Supreme Court has said very clearly they\u2019re entitled to do.<\/p>\n

Just take it from that liberal squish Justice Antonin Scalia, who said in 1997\u2019s Printz v. United States<\/a><\/em>, that the anti-commandeering doctrine barred the federal government from forcing state law enforcement officials to run background checks on gun purchasers as required by the Brady Bill.<\/p>\n

\n

The Federal Government may neither issue directives requiring the States to address particular problems, nor command the States\u2019 officers\u2026 to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program. It matters not whether policymaking is involved, and no case-by-case weighing of the burdens or benefits is necessary; such commands are fundamentally incompatible with our constitutional system of dual sovereignty.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And so the lawsuit bizarrely recasts the refusal to carry out federal policy with obstructing it, accusing the state of \u201cobstructing the Federal Government\u2019s ability to enforce laws that Congress has enacted or to take actions entrusted to it by the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

It then invents a new protected class and accuses the state of \u2026 discriminating against the feds?<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WTF???<\/p>\n

So weird that our new AG felt the need to threaten<\/a> \u201cany attorney who because of their personal political views or judgments declines to sign a brief or appear in court, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Administration\u201d with termination \u2014 how else are you going to get line attorneys to sign off on this shit?<\/p>\n

The DOJ tried<\/a> to designate this case as related to a First Amendment challenge<\/a> to Trump\u2019s immigration executive order filed by a coalition of nonprofits, which would have put them in front of Judge John Kness, a Trump appointee. But no dice \u2014 the case is in front of Judge Lindsay Jenkins, a Biden appointee. An initial status hearing is scheduled for April 15.<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by Win McNamee\/Getty Images) Donald Trump spent the four years between his two presidencies filing garbage lawsuits. Hillary Clinton! The Pulitzer Committee! Twitter! No one was immune. Now back in the White House, President Trump is continuing the habit. Yesterday, the Department of Justice sued the state of Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker, the City […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-12.25.30E280AFPM-1024x941-7rTF5s.webp?fit=1024%2C941&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}