{"id":275645,"date":"2026-06-23T20:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T20:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/275645\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T20:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T20:16:08","slug":"justice-department-and-new-york-swap-suits-over-mask-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/275645\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Department and New York swap suits over mask ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday that it is suing the state of New York over a series of immigration-enforcement regulations recently passed as part of the state budget.<\/p>\n<p>Filed in the Western District of New York, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/media\/1447671\/dl?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=govdelivery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">t<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/media\/1447671\/dl?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=govdelivery\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he suit<\/a>\u00a0challenges the <a href=\"https:\/\/spectrumlocalnews.com\/nys\/central-ny\/politics\/2026\/05\/29\/hochul-signs-measures-to-limit-ice-cooperation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">state&#8217;s moves to prohibit federal officers from wearing masks and concealing their identities while on duty,<\/a> and end agreements that allow local municipalities from using resources to assist in federal immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00a0argues that states do not have the authority to regulate the federal government\u2019s operations and the laws put the lives of law enforcement officers at risk. The lawsuit also names Gov. Kathy Hochul, state Attorney General Letitia James and Michael Russo, the assistant attorney general in charge, Buffalo Regional Office.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Governor Hochul cannot tell Federal officers how to do their job,\u201d Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said. &#8220;And she certainly cannot prohibit them from ensuring their own safety in conducting Federal law enforcement operations. Our suit today stops New York\u2019s unconstitutional efforts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In return, Hochul and James on Tuesday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.governor.ny.gov\/news\/governor-hochul-and-attorney-general-james-sue-defend-new-community-safety-laws\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sued<\/a> the Trump administration to protect the laws, saying they hold the federal government accountable when it comes to immigration and law enforcement operations in New York. The face-covering law is set to take effect on Friday, they noted.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement released Tuesday, Hochul said, \u201cA badge carries with it a responsibility to uphold the public\u2019s trust. New Yorkers deserve to know who is enforcing the law in their communities and have the assurance that local resources are being deployed to protect public safety, not to intimidate or advance the agenda of a rogue federal agency, these laws reflect New York\u2019s values, and we\u2019re not going to let anyone bully us into abandoning them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She said she and James are asking the court to block the Justice Department&#8217;s suit, arguing it violates the Tenth Amendment and the state&#8217;s ability to enact laws that protect public safety.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy hiding their faces and refusing to wear identification, federal immigration officers endanger New Yorkers and intentionally evade accountability,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday that it is suing the state of New York over a series&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[109,116,387,13933,2301,9,24,55,54,49,12,56,112,87,308],"class_list":["post-275645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","tag-app-public-safety","tag-dennis-yusko","tag-immigration","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-politics","tag-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}