Federal–State Power Struggles

California has become the first U.S. state to join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network (GOARN) just as the Trump administration withdraws the federal government from WHO and stops participating in WHO‑led emergency calls. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health director Dr. Erica Pan say California is now on weekly 5 a.m. WHO briefings, gaining access to outbreak intelligence and the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources platform so the state can spot and prepare for emerging threats without federal mediation. Illinois has announced it is "making preparations" to follow California into GOARN, while the U.S. State Department tells NPR that "the United States will not be participating in regular WHO‑led or managed events" and is instead cutting its own bilateral health deals. Global‑health experts like Duke’s Dr. Gavin Yamey call the state‑level move a "smart and savvy" response to Washington’s retreat, arguing it plugs some of the gap left as federal guidance erodes, including the absence of a national flu‑vaccination campaign this season. The shift marks an unusual turn in U.S. public‑health governance, with individual states now seeking direct links to a UN agency to protect their residents as the federal government steps back from multilateral outbreak coordination.

The Trump administration’s Justice Department has asked a federal judge to reject Minnesota’s request for an injunction limiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the state, arguing the move would amount to an 'unprecedented act of judicial overreach' and give the state an unconstitutional veto over federal law enforcement. In a Monday filing responding to Minnesota’s lawsuit, DOJ lawyers called the state’s theory 'legally frivolous' and an 'absurdity,' insisting the Tenth Amendment does not let states eject federal officers simply because they dislike current enforcement. Minnesota is seeking to block a massive ICE surge that has brought more than 2,000 federal immigration officers into the Twin Cities, which state officials say has terrorized communities, disrupted local policing and followed the fatal Jan. 13 shooting of 37‑year‑old Renee Good by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis. DOJ counters that ICE and other DHS personnel in and around Minneapolis are facing rising 'threats, violence, aggression, attacks, vehicle block‑ins, and obstruction,' framing the surge as both lawful and necessary in the face of what DHS says is a 1,300% increase in assaults on agents. The state has until Thursday to respond, setting up a fast‑moving test of how far federal courts are willing to go in refereeing clashes between a state government and an administration that is using an aggressive immigration crackdown as a centerpiece of its domestic agenda.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has endorsed a bill that would give New Yorkers a private right of action to sue ICE agents for alleged constitutional or other rights violations, a measure Democrats say is part of a broader response to the Minneapolis shooting of Renee Good. The proposal is one element of a multi‑state Democratic push—alongside Oregon and California bills, New Jersey sanctuary measures, and a Maryland proposal to “digitally unmask” agents—that raises novel constitutional and federal‑preemption questions courts will likely have to resolve.