Obama Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Withholding Funds From Dozens Of Sanctuary Havens

An Obama-appointed judge ruled late Friday that the Trump administration could not deny federal funds to dozens of cities and counties over their sanctuary policies.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick, appointed to the bench in northern California by President Barack Obama, extended a preliminary injunction that blocks the Trump administration from withholding or conditioning federal funds from jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, according to court documents. The lawsuit, originally filed by San Francisco officials earlier this year, has since taken on many other sanctuary jurisdictions as plaintiffs.

“The new plaintiffs have each alleged similar reliance on federal funding as the Cities and Counties and filed declarations showing similar harms to community health, welfare and social services and to their budgetary processes that depend on the regularly authorized grants of federal funding for a variety of critical needs,” Orrick stated, according to court documents.

“The challenged sections of Executive Orders 14,159 and 14,218, and the executive actions that have parroted them threaten to withhold all federal funding from the plaintiffs as sanctuary jurisdictions if they do not adapt their policies and practices to conform with the Trump administration’s preferences,” the judge continued. “That coercive threat (and any actions agencies take to realize that threat, or additional Executive Orders the President issues to the same end) is unconstitutional, so I enjoined its effect. I do so again today for the protection of the new parties in this case.”

The Obama-appointed judge has consistently ruled against the Trump’s administration’s quest to end sanctuary policies across the country.

In April, Orrick deemed President Donald Trump’s executive orders cracking down on sanctuary cities to be likely unconstitutional