Judge appears skeptical of Trump suit against California
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A U.S. judge appeared skeptical of some of the Trump administration’s key arguments for seeking to block three California laws intended to protect immigrants, questioning the scope of federal power over immigration during a lengthy court hearing on Wednesday.
Judge John Mendez warned at the end of the roughly five-hour session during which he pressed lawyers for both sides not to read too much into his questions, saying he sometimes played “devil’s advocate.”
But he told an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice he was not convinced California enacted the protections in an effort to interfere with federal immigration enforcement — potentially undercutting one of the administration’s arguments.
“We’re not going along anymore, we’re not participating,” he said about how he read the state’s motives.