Judge blocks part of Trump's sanctuary cities executive order
Judge blocks part of Trump's sanctuary cities executive order
Washington (CNN)A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a threat to take away funds from sanctuary cities -- the latest blow from the federal judiciary to President Donald Trump's immigration agenda.
In his ruling, Judge William H. Orrick sided with Santa Clara County, the city of San Francisco and other jurisdictions, who argued that a threat to take away federal funds from cities that do not cooperate with some federal immigration enforcement could be unconstitutional.
In making the ruling apply nationwide, Orrick blocked the government from enforcing a key portion of Trump's January executive order on immigration, which ordered the Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department to block cities who do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement from receiving federal funds.
Sessions: No fed grants for sanctuary cities 01:26
While Orrick's ruling does not find the policy unconstitutional, he did find that the counties and cities that challenged the law demonstrated they could face "immediate irreparable harm" if the policy were allowed to be put into place, and that their constitutional challenge could succeed once the case is fully heard.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus vowed Tuesday to "take action" to appeal the ruling.
"It's the 9th Circuit going bananas," Priebus told CNN and other reporters during an interview in his West Wing office, referring to the appellate court that would hear an appeal to the case and has already sparred with the administration.
He called it "forum shopping" -- and said it was absurd that an administration could not put in a "reasonable restriction on how this money is spent."
In a statement, the Justice Department said it would continue to enforce grant requirements and compliance with the law.
"Further, the order does not purport to enjoin the department's independent legal authority to enforce the requirements of federal law applicable to communities that violate federal immigration law or federal grant conditions," spokesman Ian Prior said.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the ruling.
The judge did leave the government some wiggle room, saying that his order does not block the government from enforcing conditions on federal grants nor does it block the government from creating a definition of sanctuary jurisdictions -- but the government will not be able to block federal funds from going to those cities as Trump ordered.
Orrick wrote that the jurisdictions successfully showed they "are currently suffering irreparable harm" because the order violates rights granted to states by the Constitution and because, even if the order hasn't been carried out, it has "caused budget uncertainty" simply by threatening to take away hundreds of millions in federal funds.
"The Counties have demonstrated that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their challenge to Section 9(a) of the Executive Order, that they will suffer irreparable harm absent an injunction, and that the balance of harms and public interest weigh in their favor," Orrick wrote.
"This is an absolutely huge win," James Williams, counsel to Santa Clara County, told CNN. "The threat to withhold funds from state and local governments in this executive order is dead."
"Faced with the law, the Trump administration was force to back down," San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement. "This is why we have courts -- to halt the overreach of a president and an attorney general who either don't understand the Constitution or choose to ignore it."
If the case is appealed, it will go before the 9th Circuit Court, a body whose judges trend to the left. It was the 9th Circuit that upheld a nationwide block on Trump's controversial first travel ban, a ruling that effectively forced the administration to re-write the law in a second attempt to get it past the courts. That second attempt has also been blocked as it works its way through the process. Williams said lawyers are "absolutely" prepared to defend the ruling and are "very confident" they will prevail.
Ref :- http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/25/politics/sanctuary-cities-injunction/
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