Attorney General Becerra: Supreme Court Maintains Constitutional Restraints on Federal Overreach in Declining to Review Appellate Court Holding in USA v. CA

SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today released a statement following news that the U.S. Supreme Court denied the federal government’s petition for review in United States v. California: 

“In California, we’ve seen the success that comes from building trust between law enforcement and our hard-working immigrant communities. The last thing we need to do is to erode that trust. Today, America is experiencing the pain and protest that occurs when trust is broken,” said Attorney General Becerra. “That’s why this fight mattered so much. We’re protecting Californians’ right to decide how we do public safety in our state. The Trump Administration does not have the authority to commandeer state resources. We’re heartened by today’s Supreme Court decision.”

At issue in the federal government’s petition for review in United States v. California was whether federal law preempts Senate Bill 54 (SB 54), a law enacted in 2017 that is intended to protect public safety by enhancing trust between state and local law enforcement and the communities they serve. In 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the ruling by the district court against the federal government on SB 54, noting that the federal government was unlikely to succeed on the merits. The district court’s decision in favor of SB 54 occurred in 2018.

A copy of the order is available here. More information about this case is available on the U.S. Supreme Court docket here.