9th Circuit Court ruled Donald Trump can withhold Federal funding from sanctuary cities

  Excluding a decision back at the beginning of July on the border wall the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has handed the Trump administration a few recent victories and it looks as if they have just handed him another one.

  Back in 2017 Donald Trump signed an Executive Order which withheld some Federal grant money from cities which did not comply with Federal immigration laws and the administration was subsequently sued. On Friday the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Donald Trump’s favor.

  Here is more:

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled in favor of the Trump administration, saying the Department of Justice could give preference in awarding grants to cities that would use the money to focus on illegal immigration

The City of Los Angeles sued the Department of Justice because it did not receive any funding from the Community Oriented Policing Services grant program, which is aimed at initiatives to build trust between communities and law enforcement agencies. Los Angeles chose “building trust and respect” as its focus area and did not mention illegal immigration in its application because of its policy as a sanctuary city.

The panel of judges ruled that “because DOJ’s scoring factors encouraged, but did not coerce, an applicant to cooperate on immigration matters, the panel also rejected Los Angeles’s claims that DOJ’s use of the factors infringed on state autonomy in a manner that raised Tenth Amendment concerns.”

“DOJ did not exceed its statutory authority in awarding bonus points to applicants that selected the illegal immigration focus area,” the judges wrote, arguing that “DOJ’s determination that the techniques of community policing may be used to address this public safety issue (illegal immigration) was entirely reasonable.”

Needless to say, the White House was happy:

The White House praised the court’s decision, saying in a statement Friday that it “reverses a lawless decision that enabled Sanctuary City policies, putting the safety and security of all Americans in harm’s way.”

“The ruling upholds the right of the Department of Justice to ensure discretionary grants under its control are not being used to subsidize these jurisdictions’ open assault on law-abiding Americans and their loved ones,” the statement added.

  This is another major victory for the President and it comes at the hands of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. We have been saying that more and more recently and it looks like one of Donald Trump’s top priorities–remaking the lower courts–is happening right before our eyes.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium