The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly planning to spend up to $20 million on electric shock gloves for ICE agents. Governor Gavin Newsom just signed a bill banning them in California. And the federal government's top attorney in the state responded by asking what might be the most devastating legal question in modern gubernatorial history.
"Or what? You're going to write us a ticket?"
That was First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli — the DOJ's ranking prosecutor in California's Central District — reacting to Newsom's signing of 21 bills on September 29 designed to restrict federal immigration enforcement across the state. The package included AB 2760, a ban on shock gloves through 2030, restrictions on flash-bang grenades and explosive breaching charges during immigration operations, and AB 1633, which imposes a 25% tax on gross receipts of private immigration detention center operators.
Newsom's office framed the legislation as a shield to "protect Californians from Trump's Orwellian immigration tactics." The governor himself declared, "This is about stepping up where the federal government has failed our communities."
Essayli was unmoved. He posted his response publicly, writing: "Governor, we've been through this already. If you want to regulate federal agents, you have to win a federal election. Until then, you have no jurisdiction." He then advised DHS to simply disregard California's shock glove ban entirely, citing the constitutional supremacy of federal authority over state attempts to regulate federal officers.
The package also included SB 747, branded the "No Kings Act" by its author, state Senator Scott Wiener. The bill enables Californians to sue federal agents for alleged constitutional violations including excessive force, unlawful searches, and discrimination based on race, national origin, or political identity. Wiener declared that "ICE and Border Patrol have terrorized California communities with impunity. That ends today."
That's quite a claim from a state legislature that has zero jurisdiction over federal law enforcement operations. The Supremacy Clause isn't a suggestion. It's the reason Essayli could respond to 21 bills with a two-word question and not lose a second of sleep over it.
Democrat Representative Sara Jacobs of California went further, calling the shock gloves "torture" and demanding Congress defund ICE and Border Patrol entirely. "No more money for ICE or Border Patrol," Jacobs said. "Instead, we need to dismantle and overhaul them." Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi claimed "ICE has demonstrated a pattern of misusing tools and devices, including rubber bullets and chemical sprays, in manners that put the public at greater risk of serious injury or death."
The instinct here is familiar. California passes a law it knows it can't enforce against the federal government, holds a press conference, gets the headlines, and then waits for the inevitable lawsuit that lets Newsom play victim. The Trump administration has already successfully blocked previous California attempts to obstruct federal immigration authority in court. The state tried it before. It lost before.