Trump vows to take sanctuary cities case to high court

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump vowed Wednesday to challenge California jurisdictions all the way to the Supreme Court after a federal judge there stopped him from withholding funds to penalize them for shielding immigrants in the country illegally.

Trump, who twice has been blocked by courts from imposing a temporary travel ban on visitors from select Muslimmajority countries, expressed frustration that once again a judge in a single district could thwart him from taking action. The judge who issued the latest ruling is in California, the same state as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which heard the previous cases.

“First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “See you in the Supreme Court!”

Asked by reporters later in the day whether he was surprised by the ruling, Trump said: “I’m never surprised by the 9th Circuit. We’ll see them at the Supreme Court.”

Trump may have been confused about which court actually ruled in the latest dispute, involving so-called sanctuary cities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has not yet actually heard the case, just a district court judge located within the 9th Circuit jurisdiction. Under normal procedures, the district court judge’s ruling would have to be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which would rule before it could be brought to the Supreme Court.

But Trump’s confidence in a future victory at the Supreme Court follows the successful confirmation of his appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch. In theory, at least, Gorsuch bolsters the conservative wing of the court, but there is no guarantee five justices would agree to overturn a ruling against the administration even if the case does reach them.

In the sanctuary city case, Judge William H. Orrick of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in San Francisco, issued a temporary injunction on Tuesday preventing the president from holding back billions in federal funding from jurisdictions such as San Francisco and Santa Clara County, which filed the lawsuit. The injunction applied nationwide until the judge can rule on the underlying constitutional issues, but he indicated strongly he leaned against the Trump administration on the matter.