A California federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's threat to deny federal funding to sanctuary cities. It is a blow to another one of President Donald Trump's executive orders.
- President wanted to deny cities funds if they don't cooperate with immigration enforcement
- Donald Trump vows to go to Supreme Court
Trump's executive order on immigration in January ordered the Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department to block cities who do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement from receiving federal funds.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued the preliminary injunction in two lawsuits, one brought by the city of San Francisco and the other by Santa Clara County, against an executive order targeting communities that protect immigrants from deportation.
Orrick ruled that Trump's executive order could be unconstitutional and the judge sided with with Santa Clara County and the city of San Francisco. The judge rejected the administration's argument that the executive order applies only to a relatively small pot of money and said Trump cannot set new conditions on spending approved by Congress.
Even if the president could do so, those conditions would have to be clearly related to the funds at issue and not coercive, as the executive order appears to be, Orrick said.
This new ruling now temporarily blocks the president from acting on that threat.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told a CNN reporter, "It's the 9th Circuit going bananas" and he vowed to take action and appeal the ruling.
Others are applauding the judge's call, like California's Democratic U.S. representative Mark Takano:
This EO on sanctuary cities now has even more in common with @realDonaldTrump. It's short-sighted, dangerous, and violates the constitution. https://t.co/LadAx6rWqu
— Mark Takano (@RepMarkTakano) April 25, 2017
Miami-Dade County began abiding by the executive order just after it was put into place, with Mayor Carlos Giménez saying they could not risk losing the funding.
The president responded about the ruling in a series of tweets:
First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017
Out of our very big country, with many choices, does everyone notice that both the "ban" case and now the "sanctuary" case is brought in ...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017
...the Ninth Circuit, which has a terrible record of being overturned (close to 80%). They used to call this "judge shopping!" Messy system.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017
The Associated Press contributed to this story.