Judge declines, for now, to halt part of Trump's anti-sanctuary city policy
Source: Politico
By JOSH GERSTEIN 03/05/2018 07:53 PM EST Updated 03/05/2018 08:50 PM EST
A federal judge has turned down a request from the state of California to put an immediate stop to enforcement of a key part of the Trump administration policy aimed at punishing so-called sanctuary cities and other jurisdictions seeking to protect undocumented immigrants.
U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick did not rule out eventually deciding the case in the state's favor and, at times in the 28-page opinion he issued Monday, he sounded sympathetic to many of the state's arguments about Attorney General Jeff Session's stated plans to enforce a 1996 law aimed at requiring local and state officials to cooperate with requests for information about the citizenship and immigration status of individuals they encounter.
However, Orrick said many of the legal issues involved were murky and did not tip so clearly in favor of the state as to warrant a preliminary injunction blocking the Justice Department from using the two-decade-old law known as Section 1373 to deny certain federal grants to localities and states seen to be in violation of the federal law.
"The issues in this case will benefit from further development," Orrick wrote. "I find that the State has not demonstrated that I should issue a preliminary injunction at this time."
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/05/sanctuary-city-trump-judge-438469