SACRAMENTO – Two California residents filed a petition asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California to order Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr. and Attorney General Xavier Becerra to comply with the promises made in their oath of office and enforce the immigration rules mandated by President Donald J. Trump, according to an April 20 court filing.
“These two public servants…have openly declared a total defiance to the demands of our President Donald J. Trump,” petitioners Donald M. Bird and Marian Bird said in the filing. “They continue to impede the president’s efforts to cure the immigration violations.”
As a result of their alleged defiance to the immigration efforts, the petitioner said Brown and Becerra should “obey the oath” they took when they took office and “acknowledge the fact and exact true wording of the oath.”
The Birds said in the petition that the governor and attorney general’s actions leave them “in contempt of (the) Constitution.”
Specifically, the petitioners said a law protecting the governor from being sued does not allow Brown to use his own judgment or discretion in deciding whether to enforce the mandate. The Birds also argue that the law gives the courts the right to enforce the provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
“The petitioners support the opinion that the Constitution is the Supreme law of the United States of America and no court is entitled to support any person, public or private, to abridge this cornerstone of our republic,” the Birds said in their petition. “If (Brown and Becerra) act in a ministerial capacity and they violate any constitutional right, they are not exempt from the power of the writ of mandamus.”
Through their petition for writ of mandamus, the Birds said they are asking the court to order a trial before a jury of six or eight jurors, to order Brown and Becerra to reimburse all related legal fees and to order the Birds to replay to the petition within 30 days.
The petitioners said they also reserved the right “to move this case and declare this to become a criminal matter.”