It's a strange thing to watch unfold, election cycle after election cycle: the people whose job is to protect us have become, for one entire political party, a favorite target instead. Not every Democrat, to be fair. But enough of the party's loudest, most visible figures have built careers on treating law enforcement as the villain of the story rather than its protagonist that the pattern is impossible to ignore anymore. Lie about what officers did. Assume the worst motive first and ask questions never. And in California, go so far as to pass a law designed to force plainclothes federal agents to identify themselves publicly, by name, while doing their jobs — effectively handing out a roadmap for anyone who wanted to target them.

This week, the nation's most reliably left-leaning federal appeals court looked at that law and said no.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, a bench that has ruled against the Trump administration on immigration policy about as often as any court in the country, blocked a provision of California's "No Vigilantes Act" that would have required federal agents to display their badges and identification during operations. The panel didn't split hairs about it. They found the Trump administration "certain to succeed" in its underlying lawsuit, and ruled the law violates........

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