History Curiously Repeats

California Seeks Effective Secession From the Union

Life has a tendency to throw up some unexpected turn of events.  Or, as the saying has it, beware unintended consequences.  

The American Civil War was fought over the principle of States' rights.  The fundamental question was how much original authority resided in the states versus how much resided in the Federal government.  Did the Federal government hold a higher authority than the states when it came to managing their own affairs?  The signature issue at the time was slavery.  The Civil War "answered" the question: federalism triumphed over states' rights--by force of arms.

In recent years we have seen the re-emergence of the doctrine of states' rights, however.  It has come from an unexpected quarter.  Cities (and states) in the US have begun to assert a "sanctuary status" for illegal aliens, which means that they refuse to support or comply with Federal Government law on immigrants.  Leading the charge for this recrudescence of doctrines of states' rights has been California, one of the most "liberal" States in the union.
  But they are fighting a lost war.

The doctrine of “preemption” dictates that, as federal law reigns supreme over state law, states may not enforce laws that frustrate federal policies. It has a long history, dating back nearly to the dawn of the Republic with 1819’s McCulloch v. Maryland. In the immigration context, the doctrine was widely heralded by open borders advocates in 2012, when the Supreme Court relied on it to strike down sections of Arizona’s tough SB 1070 anti-illegal immigration bill in Arizona v. United States.

The legal shoe is on the other foot now, as the Trump administration seeks to have California’s leading-edge sanctuary laws overturned on a similar theory.  [Breitbart News]

The thing is that California has decided that it will not comply with federal law when it comes to illegal aliens within its own state.  California has made itself a sanctuary state for illegal aliens.  The US Justice Department is taking action in the attempt to assert Federal authority over California's States' Rights claim.  It's a case of "back to the future".

The defendants are the State of California, Gov. Jerry Brown, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra – the elected official who, perhaps more than any other, has made protection of criminal illegal aliens and “resistance” to President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda his signature policy.

Becerra oversaw the passage of three state laws which made it an offence for Californian businesses and citizens to co-operate with federal authorities in carrying the nation's immigration law.   So, the poor citizens of California faced a dilemma.  Either they refuse to co-operate with the Feds and risk Federal legal liability, or if they do co-operate with the Feds, the State of California will prosecute them.  This is a most perverse form of double jeopardy.

During the first round of ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] raids after HB 450 went into effect, Becerra was very clear that his office “will prosecute” employers who cooperate.

Who would have thought that liberal California would step out and become a new Confederacy, asserting its own version of States' Rights?  Who would have thought that California Governor would become the modern incarnation of Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederate States of America?  States' Righters, all.  As one sage put it, "It's deja-vu all over again."