A court ruled that President Trump may not withhold all federal funds from “sanctuary cities” that do not enforce U.S. immigration laws.
The ruling said that the President may withhold some funds, as already specified in the law. That will amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, a not insignificant punishment. But only Congress has the power of the purse, so as to have the authority to withhold money from generally applicable and non-related programs such as Medicare, education grants, etc.
Once again, President Trump is checked and balanced. The courts, Congress, the states keep thwarting his signature issues. Do you think this is an example of the genius of our Constitutional system or anti-Trump obstructionism? If this represents a roll-back of the power of the presidency, which has arguably seized too much power over the last decades, do we have a Congress that can fill the void, or does it lack the leadership to fulfill its Constitutional role?
From Donald Trump’s sanctuary city order ruled likely unconstitutional – Washington Times:
A judge blocked President Trump’s anti-sanctuary city executive order Tuesday, accusing the White House of wrongly trying to threaten the cities and saying Congress, not the president, gets to decide what strings to attach to federal funds.
The ruling was still a partial victory for the president though, with the judge saying the administration can withhold funds in cases where the law already gives him permission.
That clears the path for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to strip sanctuary cities of hundreds of millions of dollars doled out each year across three Justice Department grant programs
Still, the nationwide injunction by U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick is the latest legal spanking for Mr. Trump, who has now seen three executive orders — all of them dealing with immigration and homeland security policy — halted by the courts.
[Keep reading. . .]
Illustration, map of sanctuary cities by Burzum (Burzum) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
A court ruled that President Trump may not withhold all federal funds from “sanctuary cities” that do not enforce U.S. immigration laws.
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