Circuit Courts Divided on Trump’s Sanctuary City Grants

Last Monday, the Ninth Circuit scaled back a nationwide order that blocks the Trump administration from cutting off grants to sanctuary jurisdictions after finding that the mandate should only apply in California.

Nicholas Iovino of Courthouse News reports that the new verdict comes after a 2017 lawsuit brought by San Francisco. The city sued the Justice Department after the Trump Administration announced plans to make jurisdictions ineligible for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, unless they gave immigration agents unrestricted access to local jails, and provided 48 hours’ notice before releasing undocumented immigrants from jail. California joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff, and later passed it’s own separate set of “Sanctuary State” laws in October 2017.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera explained “We sued the Trump Administration because our priority in California is to keep our communities safe and protected.”  The logic here is that keeping criminal aliens on San Francisco streets and protecting them from deportation keeps the law-abiding public “safe and protected.”

The determination was made by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit, that a more limited injunction would ensure California receives $28.3 million in public safety grants, that would have otherwise been withheld under the Trump administration’s policy, according to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

The Ninth Circuit ruling held that U.S. District Judge William Orrick III overstepped his authority in announcing a national injunction.  The court rejected the Trump Administration’s arguments that Section 1373 of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act requires local jurisdictions to share information with federal agents beyond a person’s citizenship status, including an immigrant’s home address and jail release date.

Similar rulings denying the Administration’s order from the First, Third, and Seventh Circuits have been countered by a panel of the NewYork City-based Second Circuit , which upheld the mandate.  Adam Klasfeld reports that the federal appeals court cleared the way for the Justice Department to withhold the grant money.

In an en banc vote Last Monday, the Second Circuit split 6-6 about whether to review the panel’s decision, leaving it in place.

The judges in opposition called the ruling “astonishing.”  U.S. Circuit Judge Raymond Lohier explained “Until today, every single circuit judge to have considered the questions presented by this appeal has resolved them the same way.

The deadlock is a shock to seven states, including New York, which sued over the restrictions, a won a district court ruling ordering the Justice Department to release the funding.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio denounced the reversal, accusing Trump of putting the city in danger by withholding the grant money. “No one knows how to keep New Yorkers safe better than the men and women of the NYPD” he said in a February statement.   On June 29 politico reported that de Blaiso was cutting $1 billion from the NYPD budget.   Was his cut in funding putting the city in danger?   With the NYPD handcuffed by Mayor de Blasio,  the horrific spike in assaults, shootings and murderers in the Big Apple over the past two months is clear evidence that the cops have been unable “to keep New Yorkers safe.”  They will do even worse after the Mayor’s cuts kick in.