A federal judge has admonished the Trump administration not to use a recent executive order on so-called sanctuary jurisdictions to sidestep a block he already placed on similar orders surrounding those jurisdictions’ funding.
Sanctuary jurisdictions are municipalities that refuse to cooperate with the federal government in enforcing immigration law.
“Litigation may not proceed with the coercive threat to end all federal funding hanging over the Cities and Counties’ heads like the sword of Damocles,” U.S. District Judge William Orrick said in an opinion on May 9.
That was a threat Orrick said the administration made with two executive orders in January and February. After Orrick blocked those orders in April, President Donald Trump signed another executive order directing department heads to identify “appropriate Federal funds to sanctuary jurisdictions, including grants and contracts, for suspension or termination as appropriate.”…