Judicial critique:

California’s chief justice renews criticism of immigration officials’ tactic.

California’s chief justice renewed her criticism of federal immigration officials Monday for conducting raids at courthouses and, in her annual State of the Judiciary address, appeared to escalate her critique of the Trump administration.

“Our values, practices and laws are being called into question, and all three branches of government and the free press are in the crosshairs,” Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said in remarks prepared for a joint session of the Legislature.

She did not specify the dangers to the three branches of government, but “free press ... in the crosshairs” was an evident reference to President Trump’s repeated attacks on the news media, which he has called “the enemy of the American people.”

More generally, CantilSakauye told lawmakers that “the rule of law is being threatened. We are living in a time of civil rights unrest, eroding trust in our institutions, economic anxiety, and unprecedented polarization.”

Cantil-Sakauye, a former prosecutor, was named chief justice in 2010 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

After reports from California and four other states that U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents had gone to courthouses to arrest immigrants for deportation, Cantil-Sakauye sent a letter to the agency March 16 saying agents should stop “stalking courthouses.”

An ICE spokeswoman replied that the agency makes arrests at courthouses as a last resort, after other options have failed.

The chief justice, a Filipino American, returned to the theme in Monday’s speech after recalling her husband’s parents who were held at U.S. internment camps for Japanese Americans for four years during World War II.

“What happens when the rule of law fails in California? Let’s ask my in-laws,” Cantil-Sakauye said.

She said immigration arrests at courthouses, and the fear of such arrests, “will trickle down into communities, churches, schools and families, and I worry that people will no longer cooperate, or come to court to press their rights, or to seek protection because they will see the court as a bad place. And I worry that crimes will go unreported and communities will live in fear.”