Nearly 55 percent of American likely voters say states should not be allowed to ignore federal law, as the state of California has decided to ignore federal immigration laws and protect criminal illegal aliens.

When Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that his Department of Justice (DOJ) would be suing the state of California for its “sanctuary state” laws seeking to protect criminal illegal aliens against federal law, he ignited a firestorm debate around the issue of whether or not states should be allowed to ignore federal mandates.

The majority of Americans, about 54 percent, say states and localities should not have the right to ignore federal laws that they do not agree with, a new Rasmussen Reports poll reveals.

Meanwhile, less than 24 percent of likely voters said states should be allowed to ignore federal laws they do not like.

Roughly 70 percent of Republican voters said states like California should not be allowed to ignore federal law, while just 38 percent of Democrat voters said the same. Nearly 35 percent of Democrats said states should be allowed to ignore federal law.

Swing-voters, though, by a near 60 percent majority, say states should not be allowed to exempt themselves from federal mandates with which they do not agree.

Sessions has compared California’s ignoring of federal immigration laws to the Confederacy, telling Breitbart News, “We believe that we cannot accept the kind of restrictions that California placed on federal law officers, and we believe that their actions exceeded the Constitution, and we will win in the courts eventually.”