2nd Circuit holds that Trump can withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities
Article CAIRCO note:
Andrea Widburg
Article publisher:
American Thinker
Article date:
27 February 2020
Article category:
National News
High
Article Body:
In 2017, as part of efforts to crack down on uncontrolled illegal immigration, Trump’s Justice Department announced that it would withhold federal monies from so-called sanctuary cities and states that prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from having access to illegal aliens within those “sanctuary” jurisdictions. Within the ambit of the Second Circuit appellate court, New York City, Connecticut, New York State, Washington, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island raced to a Manhattan federal court claiming that it was unconstitutional. Although an activist lower court agreed, the Second Circuit has now reversed that ruling.
When seven states and NYC sued, they had every reason to believe they’d be successful. For example, in 2017, a San Francisco-based federal district court had already blocked Trump’s attempt to withhold funds from "sanctuary California" using one of the now-infamous nation-wide injunctions that had become the “resistance” judges’ stock in trade.
The winning argument in California was that Trump’s order was unconstitutional because it was trying to force state and local officials to enforce federal laws. (Of course, the opposite was true – sanctuaries jurisdictions block federal officials from enforcing federal laws.) San Francisco also claimed that working with the feds would break its bond with illegal aliens, damaging public safety. These are the kinds of arguments that work before leftist judges....
In the two to three years since that rash of decisions, Trump and Sen. Mitch McConnell have been working steadily to break the stranglehold activist judges have on the federal judicial system. To that end, they have placed 193 new judges in the federal system....
On Wednesday, Trump scored another significant judicial victory when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the White House can withhold funds from sanctuary cities. The court reached this conclusion by looking at the law, rather than making up the law:...
This is a wonderful holding, one that recognizes the Supremacy Clause (when federal and state laws are in direct conflict, federal laws win)....
Because there is now a split in holdings at the appellate court level, the issue will go to the Supreme Court but it’s reasonable to believe that the resistance will lose.