California faces uphill battle to keep No Vigilantes Act intact

A Ninth Circuit panel heard arguments over California's No Vigilantes Act, which would require nonuniformed federal officers to carry identifying badges. Deputy Solicitor General Mica Moore defended the law before judges who noted she'd already lost a related round in April, when the panel paused enforcement of the badge requirement.

Justice Department attorneys argued the supremacy clause bars states from regulating federal officers at all, and that federal concerns about doxing outweigh any interest in identification. Judges across the ideological spectrum, including an Obama appointee and two Trump appointees, seemed skeptical of California's position.

The law grew out of masked, armed federal immigration raids last year, including an incident where an American citizen says agents fired at his car after refusing to show ID. A companion law banning masks for federal agents has already been blocked by a separate judge.

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