{"id":109798,"date":"2025-03-05T16:02:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T00:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/05\/illinois-reminds-ag-bondi-that-tenth-amendment-is-still-a-thing\/"},"modified":"2025-03-05T16:02:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T00:02:56","slug":"illinois-reminds-ag-bondi-that-tenth-amendment-is-still-a-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/05\/illinois-reminds-ag-bondi-that-tenth-amendment-is-still-a-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Reminds AG Bondi That Tenth Amendment Is Still A Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Attorney General Pam Bondi is like every prior Trump AG rolled into one. She\u2019s got Bill Barr\u2019s charm, Jeff Sessions\u2019s cheerful ignorance of the law, and Matthew \u201cMongo\u201d Whittaker\u2019s dedication to physical fitness. As for integrity, well \u2026 she\u2019s in a league of her own.<\/p>\n

Bondi has steered the Justice Department into a couple of trollsuits against Illinois and New York over the blue states\u2019 refusal to carry out federal immigration regulations. Or as she put it when she announced the suit against New York, the DOJ was \u201ccharging\u201d Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James with violating federal immigration law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did it to Illinois, strike one. Strike two is New York. And if you are a state not complying with federal law, you\u2019re next. Get ready,\u201d she snorted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With respect to Illinois, Bondi is GRRRR SO MAD<\/a> about state and local ordinances barring law enforcement 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. But, as the Illinois defendants pointed out in their motions to dismiss filed yesterday, it is black letter law that states do not have to support federal law enforcement. Indeed, some of those black letters were written in prior challenges to the very statutes at issue here.<\/p>\n

For instance, in 2017, two conservative counties (McHenry and Kankakee) challenged Illinois\u2019s ban on local governments contracting with federal immigration officials to hold immigration detainees. A three-judge panel from the Seventh Circuit, including two Trump appointees, rejected<\/a> the government\u2019s preemption and intergovernmental immunity claims and tossed the case on Tenth Amendment grounds.<\/p>\n

As the state notes in its motion to dismiss<\/a>, Illinois law hasn\u2019t changed since then. Nor has Congress modified 8 U.S.C. \u00a7 1373 and \u00a7 1644, the statutes relied on here by the DOJ, much less abolished the Tenth Amendment:<\/p>\n

\n

The federal government has failed to identify any \u201cvalid statute enacted by Congress\u201d reflecting a \u201cclear and manifest purpose\u201d to conscript Illinois into assisting with federal immigration enforcement. Yes, the federal executive has changed. But there has been no intervening change in federal law that disturbs Illinois\u2019s sovereign choice to opt out of assisting in federal immigration enforcement. And yes, Illinois\u2019s choice may \u201cfrustrate\u201d implementation of \u201c[f]ederal schemes,\u201d like the current federal executive\u2019s avowed commitment to conduct the largest mass deportation in American history. But this frustration is not obstacle preemption when the Tenth Amendment protects Illinois\u2019s sovereign right not to cooperate in the President\u2019s schemes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bondi\u2019s solution to this problem is to whine in a generalized way that states are \u201cobstructing\u201d federal law by refusing to enforce it themselves. Or perhaps that they are discriminating against the federal government under the intergovernmental immunity doctrine.<\/p>\n

But, as Cook County points out in its motion to dismiss<\/a>, \u201cany contention that
the County Ordinance runs afoul of that doctrine is frivolous, having been foreclosed by binding Seventh Circuit precedent the United States simply ignores.\u201d <\/p>\n

All the defendants have asked for a dismissal with prejudice.<\/p>\n

The case is before US District Judge Lindsey Jenkins, a Biden appointee. So when she inevitably yeets this dumb turkey into the sun, Bondi can try to save face by claiming it doesn\u2019t count because FAKE NEWS LIBERALS \u2026 at least until the Seventh Circuit weighs in. But by then, she\u2019ll have moved on to arresting California for failure to issue free parking permits to ICE or some such idiocy.<\/p>\n

US v. Illinois<\/a> [Docket via Court Listener]<\/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

The post Illinois Reminds AG Bondi That Tenth Amendment Is Still A Thing<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Attorney General Pam Bondi is like every prior Trump AG rolled into one. She\u2019s got Bill Barr\u2019s charm, Jeff Sessions\u2019s cheerful ignorance of the law, and Matthew \u201cMongo\u201d Whittaker\u2019s dedication to physical fitness. As for integrity, well \u2026 she\u2019s in a league of her own.<\/p>\n

Bondi has steered the Justice Department into a couple of trollsuits against Illinois and New York over the blue states\u2019 refusal to carry out federal immigration regulations. Or as she put it when she announced the suit against New York, the DOJ was \u201ccharging\u201d Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James with violating federal immigration law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did it to Illinois, strike one. Strike two is New York. And if you are a state not complying with federal law, you\u2019re next. Get ready,\u201d she snorted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With respect to Illinois, Bondi is GRRRR SO MAD<\/a> about state and local ordinances barring law enforcement 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. But, as the Illinois defendants pointed out in their motions to dismiss filed yesterday, it is black letter law that states do not have to support federal law enforcement. Indeed, some of those black letters were written in prior challenges to the very statutes at issue here.<\/p>\n

For instance, in 2017, two conservative counties (McHenry and Kankakee) challenged Illinois\u2019s ban on local governments contracting with federal immigration officials to hold immigration detainees. A three-judge panel from the Seventh Circuit, including two Trump appointees, rejected<\/a> the government\u2019s preemption and intergovernmental immunity claims and tossed the case on Tenth Amendment grounds.<\/p>\n

As the state notes in its motion to dismiss<\/a>, Illinois law hasn\u2019t changed since then. Nor has Congress modified 8 U.S.C. \u00a7 1373 and \u00a7 1644, the statutes relied on here by the DOJ, much less abolished the Tenth Amendment:<\/p>\n

\n

The federal government has failed to identify any \u201cvalid statute enacted by Congress\u201d reflecting a \u201cclear and manifest purpose\u201d to conscript Illinois into assisting with federal immigration enforcement. Yes, the federal executive has changed. But there has been no intervening change in federal law that disturbs Illinois\u2019s sovereign choice to opt out of assisting in federal immigration enforcement. And yes, Illinois\u2019s choice may \u201cfrustrate\u201d implementation of \u201c[f]ederal schemes,\u201d like the current federal executive\u2019s avowed commitment to conduct the largest mass deportation in American history. But this frustration is not obstacle preemption when the Tenth Amendment protects Illinois\u2019s sovereign right not to cooperate in the President\u2019s schemes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bondi\u2019s solution to this problem is to whine in a generalized way that states are \u201cobstructing\u201d federal law by refusing to enforce it themselves. Or perhaps that they are discriminating against the federal government under the intergovernmental immunity doctrine.<\/p>\n

But, as Cook County points out in its motion to dismiss<\/a>, \u201cany contention that
the County Ordinance runs afoul of that doctrine is frivolous, having been foreclosed by binding Seventh Circuit precedent the United States simply ignores.\u201d <\/p>\n

All the defendants have asked for a dismissal with prejudice.<\/p>\n

The case is before US District Judge Lindsey Jenkins, a Biden appointee. So when she inevitably yeets this dumb turkey into the sun, Bondi can try to save face by claiming it doesn\u2019t count because FAKE NEWS LIBERALS \u2026 at least until the Seventh Circuit weighs in. But by then, she\u2019ll have moved on to arresting California for failure to issue free parking permits to ICE or some such idiocy.<\/p>\n

US v. Illinois<\/a> [Docket via Court Listener]<\/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

The post Illinois Reminds AG Bondi That Tenth Amendment Is Still A Thing<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images) Attorney General Pam Bondi is like every prior Trump AG rolled into one. She\u2019s got Bill Barr\u2019s charm, Jeff Sessions\u2019s cheerful ignorance of the law, and Matthew \u201cMongo\u201d Whittaker\u2019s dedication to physical fitness. As for integrity, well \u2026 she\u2019s in a league of her own. Bondi has steered the Justice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":109799,"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-109798","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\/03\/pam-bondi-GettyImages-2194046785-Im6WZt.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109798","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=109798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}