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Soft secession
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey told MSNBC her state police would “absolutely not” help Trump’s deportation efforts. She’s not bluffing. In Printz v. United States (1997), Justice Scalia wrote that the federal government “cannot require states and localities to carry out its immigration policy.” The anti-commandeering doctrine, reinforced in Murphy v. NCAA (2018), means states can’t be forced to implement federal programs.
The legal foundation for soft secession was written by conservative justices who never imagined blue states would use it.