By Mark Gruenberg\People’s World
Photos: People’s World\YouTube Screenshots
SAN FRANCISCO—In a repeat of his decision from GOP President Donald Trump’s first term eight years ago, U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco upheld sanctuary cities.
This time, like before, the judge issued a nationwide injunction against Trump’s plan to deny federal cash to “sanctuary cities” which refuse to cooperate with Trump’s ICE raids and migrant roundups, sweeping up anyone who looks Hispanic.
In ruling against Trump’s monetary blackmail, Judge Orrick, nominated by Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, was just as scathing as he was then. He called it blatantly unconstitutional.
“The challenged sections in the 2025 executive orders” to Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi and other Cabinet officers “that order executive agencies to withhold, freeze, or condition federal funding apportioned to localities by Congress, violate the Constitution’s separation of powers principles and the Spending Clause,” Orrick wrote.
“They also violate the Fifth Amendment to the extent they are unconstitutionally vague and violate due process,” while Trump’s EOs “violate the Tenth Amendment because they impose coercive conditions intended to commandeer local officials into enforcing federal immigration practices and law,” he wrote on April 24.
San Francisco led the challenge against Trump’s latest orders. Chicago, Los Angeles, Santa Clara and San Jose, Calif., Seattle, Portland, Ore., the Twin Cities, and New Haven, Conn., among others, joined.
Will Trump obey the court?
| Left unclear is if Trump will obey the judge. Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote recipients of federal transit money, which include virtually all the sanctuary cities in the lawsuit, plus New York, must enforce federal law or face the financial consequences…. |
