U.S. court declares Trump’s ‘sanctuary cities’ order illegal

President Donald Trump’s executive order threatening to withhold funding from “sanctuary cities” that limit cooperation with immigration authorities is unconstitutional, but a judge went too far when he blocked its enforcement nationwide, a U.S. appeals court ruled Wednesday.

In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that the order exceeded the president’s authority. Congress alone controls spending under the U.S. Constitution, and presidents do not have the power to cut off funding it approves to pursue their policy goals, the court majority said.

“By its plain terms, the executive order directs the agencies of the executive branch to withhold funds appropriated by Congress in order to further the administration’s policy objective of punishing cities and counties that adopt so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies,” wrote Chief Judge Sidney Thomas, joined by Judge Ronald Gould.

The ruling came in a lawsuit from two California counties — San Francisco and Santa Clara.

Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, said the president’s order was legal. He called the court’s ruling a victory for “criminal aliens in California, who can continue to commit crimes knowing that the state’s leadership will protect them from federal immigration officers whose job it is to hold them accountable and remove them from the country.”

“The Justice Department remains committed to the rule of law, to protecting public safety, and to keeping criminal aliens off the streets,” he said.

The court, however, also said there wasn’t enough evidence to support a nationwide ban on Trump’s order. It limited the injunction and sent the case back to the lower court for more arguments on whether such a ban was warranted.

The decision overall is a big victory for opponents of the executive order, but Trump could try to enforce it against jurisdictions outside the 10 Western states covered by the 9th Circuit, said David Levine, an expert on federal court procedure at the University of California, Hastings, College of Law.