Federal Court Blocks Trump Order To Strip “Sanctuary Jurisdictions’ of Federal Funding

Federal judge William H. Orrick ruled against the Trump administration’s January 2017 executive order to stop federal funds from “sanctuary jurisdictions.” The order cites the reason for the blockage is because they, “willfully violate Federal law in an attempt to shield aliens from removal from the United States. These jurisdictions have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our Republic.”
Opposition to the order stated that the order violated the separation of powers doctrine in the Constitution in its use of congressional spending authority. The order was also critiqued for violating the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause and was too vague to be considered fair. The federal government believes that the sanctuary jurisdictions were not invalid in all cases and that the provision was within the Constitutional separation of powers.

The president has dubbed the executive order “a weapon” to use against jurisdictions that disagree with preferred policies of immigration enforcement. The federal court’s stated that the Constitution, and not the president, vests spending powers in Congress, so the order “cannot constitutionally place new conditions on federal funds.”
Since the order was deemed in violation of the tenth and fifth amendment rights the court blocked the order with the statement, “Federal funding that bears no meaningful relationship to immigration enforcement “cannot be threatened merely because a jurisdiction chooses an immigration enforcement strategy of which the President disapproves.”