The New Yorker:

Early this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared war on the State of California. At least that’s the way many opponents of the Trump Administration saw it. Speaking to the California Peace Officers’ Association in Sacramento, Sessions announced that the Department of Justice was suing the state for passing three laws to protect undocumented immigrants––measures, Sessions said, that “intentionally obstruct the work of our sworn immigration-enforcement officers.” California, he continued, was endangering those officers and “advancing an open-borders philosophy shared by only the most radical extremists.”

Jerry Brown, a Democrat, now in his fourth term as governor of California, reacted to Sessions with undisguised irritation. He had signed the most inflammatory of the laws—the so-called sanctuary-state law, which limits local and state coöperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement—only after demanding many changes. He wanted to insure that ICE would still be able to do its job. His contempt for the White House was palpable. “Look, we know the Trump Administration is full of liars,” Brown told reporters. “They’ve pled guilty already to the special counsel.” Brown was clearly agitated; his face was flushed, and he gestured with his left arm to emphasize his distress. “I would assume—this is pure speculation—that Jeff thinks that Donald will be happier with him, and I’m sure Donald will be tweeting his joy at this particular performance,” Brown said. “But it’s not about law enforcement, it’s not about justice, and it really demeans the high office to which he’s been appointed.”

Few Democrats in such an influential job have spoken more intemperately about the Administration. And yet Brown steered away from the language of absolutism. To Sessions, Brown said, “I still put my hand out and say, ‘I’ll coöperate, Jeff, if you can get off this current maneuver you’re on, because it’s unbecoming.’ ” Later, Brown told me that the battle launched by Sessions would be complicated and prolonged. “Trump won’t even be President by the time it gets to the Supreme Court,” he said.

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