Walters: Newsom Delusional on Cal. Mask Law

Dan Walters has this column at CalMatters on California Governor Newsom, masked ICE officers, and the recently enacted state statute on masking. “Newsom and any other critics of ICE tactics are delusional if they believe federal officers will be arrested and prosecuted for wearing masks after SB 627 takes effect.” The column headline, probably written by an editor and not by Walters, is oddly equivocal: “Court rulings cast doubt on California mask ban for federal officers.” Walters doesn’t say the ban is in doubt. He says there is no way it will be enforced.

Walters takes us back in time to one of the more colorful episodes in the history of California and the U.S. Supreme Court. In the late 1800s, U.S. Supreme Court justices literally “rode circuit,” and Justice Stephen Field was assigned to the vast Ninth Circuit, comprising the current Ninth and Tenth. David Terry, a mercurial former justice of the California Supreme Court, had a personal feud with Justice Field and confronted him in the Lathrop, California train station. Deputy U.S. Marshal David Neagle, assigned to guard Justice Field, shot Terry dead, and California authorities charged him with murder.

The Supreme Court affirmed habeas corpus relief for Neagle by a 6-2 vote, Justice Field recused. Neagle “was acting under the authority of the law of the United States, and was justified in so doing; and that he is not liable to answer in the courts of California on account of his part in that transaction.” Cunningham v. Neagle, 135 U.S. 1, 76 (1890).

Federal habeas corpus as a remedy for federal officers enforcing federal law over state objections goes all the way back to the Nullification Crisis of 1833. Newsom is following in the footsteps of John C. Calhoun.

More recent cases on unsuccessful state efforts to control federal law enforcement include Geo Group, Inc. v. Newsom, 50 F.4th 745 (CA9 2022) and United States v. King County, 122 F.4th 740 (CA9 2024).

I agree with Walters. There is no way this law will be enforced against ICE. This is just political theater.