The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against the state of Maryland and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown on Thursday, alleging that the state’s Community Trust Act obstructs federal immigration enforcement in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution. The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, asks the court to declare the law invalid and to permanently enjoin its enforcement.
The DOJ brings four counts, all grounded in the Supremacy Clause. Two allege preemption. First, the department contends the Act is expressly preempted by 8 USC § 1373 and 8 USC § 1644, which bar states from restricting the exchange of immigration status information with federal officials. Second, the DOJ argues separately that the Act is preempted as an obstacle to the federal enforcement scheme. The remaining counts invoke the intergovernmental immunity doctrine, alleging the Act (1) unlawfully regulates the federal government by demanding judicial warrants that federal law does not require for civil immigration arrests and (2) discriminates against it by singling out federal immigration authorities.
The complaint leans on Arizona v. United States, where the US Supreme Court in 2012 affirmed the federal government’s preeminent authority over immigration. The DOJ says that the law has already produced operational consequences, pointing to instances in which facilities declined to transfer individuals to federal custody in response to detainers.
Enacted this year as emergency legislation, the Community Trust Act, restricts when state and local officers may cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Correctional facilities may not notify federal authorities that an individual is in custody, hold a person past their release, or transfer them to immigration officials absent a valid court order or judicial warrant. Law enforcement agents are separately barred from sharing information gathered in their duties unless required by a valid court order.
The filing is the latest in a Civil Division campaign, directed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, targeting so-called sanctuary laws in states including Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, and New York. In June 2025, the DOJ sued New York over its Protect Our Courts Act on similar grounds. The campaign has met resistance. Last month a federal judge dismissed the Trump administration’s challenge to a Los Angeles sanctuary ordinance, finding it neither expressly preempted nor violated intergovernmental immunity because it governed only the conduct of city agents rather than the federal government.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward warned that sanctuary jurisdictions silence voters when they shield noncitizens from federal enforcement. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, who leads the Civil Division, said the DOJ was challenging Maryland’s efforts to thwart federal immigration enforcement. Brown’s office declined to comment.
