In United States v. City of New York, Judge Reyes of the Eastern District of New York ruled for the city, rejecting the Trump administration's attempt to invalidate local laws that limit information-sharing and other assistance to federal immigration agents. The judge found that federal immigration law does not preempt those policies.
The decision also addressed the Tenth Amendment. Even if the laws were preempted, the judge said, the federal claims would fail under anti-commandeering doctrine. The Supreme Court's 2018 opinion in Murphy v. NCAA, written by Justice Alito, bars Congress from dictating what state and local governments must do or prohibiting them from regulating their own agencies. The court rejected the government's argument that removing obstacles is different from compelling participation.
Judge Reyes likewise rejected the intergovernmental immunity claim. That doctrine prevents states from discriminating against the federal government, but the court held it requires a comparator. The federal government could not identify one, since state and local agencies do not enforce immigration law and the federal government has exclusive responsibility for immigration enforcement.
The ruling is another sanctuary-city loss for the administration and echoes a recent decision in United States v. New Jersey, which also relied on Murphy. The opinion notes that local governments remain free to decide how their personnel and resources are used when they are not obligated to assist federal immigration enforcement.