Judge Blocks California's Mask Ban for Federal Agents

California's attempt to unmask federal agents just ran into a constitutional snag, though not a complete stop. A federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday blocked the state's new ban on face coverings for federal law-enforcement officers, ruling that the law illegally singled them out by exempting state officers, reports the New York Times. At the same time, US District Judge Christina Snyder allowed California to keep enforcing a separate requirement that all law enforcement officers—federal, state, and local—display visible identification such as a name or badge number. The mixed decision let both California Democrats and the Trump administration claim partial victory.

Snyder, a Clinton appointee, issued a preliminary injunction against the mask ban, which the Los Angeles Times notes is called the No Secret Police Act, after finding it discriminatory. "The act treats federal law enforcement officers differently than similarly situated state law-enforcement officers," she wrote, per the Times. But she rejected the Justice Department's broader argument that California can't impose general rules on federal agents at all, signaling the mask ban could stand if rewritten to cover every level of law enforcement equally. The court also upheld the ID-display law, finding it applied uniformly and didn't intrude unconstitutionally on federal authority.

Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the ruling on masks as a win for President Trump's "law-and-order agenda," writing on X that the administration would continue to back federal officers in court. California officials focused instead on the part they kept. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom called the survival of the ID requirement—the so-called No Vigilantes Act—"a clear win for the rule of law," arguing that officers without a visible name or badge evade accountability. State Sen. Scott Wiener, who authored the mask ban, said he's already drafting a fix to extend the prohibition to state officers as the judge suggested, promising to "expedite passage of this adjustment." The AP notes that Snyder's ruling goes into effect on Feb. 19.