Another Immigration Case for the Supreme Court? United States v. California

As we have seen, the Supreme Court has a full immigration docket in the 2019 Term.   Andrew Hamm for SCOTUSBlog notes another possible immigration case for the high Court in his "petitions of the week." One of Hamm's petitions is United States v. California, in which the Ninth Circuit (mostly affirming the ruling of District Judge John Mendez) rejected most of the U.S. government's claims that California's "sanctuary" laws were preempted by federal immigration law. 

In United States v. California, the issue presented is whether provisions of California law that, with certain limited exceptions, prohibit state law-enforcement officials from providing federal immigration authorities with release dates and other information about individuals subject to federal immigration enforcement, and restrict the transfer of noncitizens in state custody to federal immigration custody, are preempted by federal law or barred by intergovernmental immunity.

It is always hard to say whether the Supreme Court will grant a cert petition.  Nonetheless.  the Court may be disinclined to grant the petition in light of (1) the thorough preemption analysis of the lower courts; (2) the Ninth Circuit opinion was written by Judge Milan Smith, a George W. Bush appointee; and (3) the fact that the Court has a relatively large number of immigration cases on its docket.

KJ