Skip to content

Federal Appeals Court Blocks Withholding of Funds for Sanctuary Jurisdictions

White House Working on Guidelines for States on Social Distancing Measures

The White House is working to soon publish guidelines to help state and local officials make decisions on either relaxing, maintaining, or increasing social distancing and other mitigation measures designed to stop the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. President Donald Trump announced the development in a letter sent to governors on March 26. The guidelines will be based on local testing for the CCP virus. Levels of spread on county-by-county basis can then be used to make decisions on containment measures. The guidelines are in line with Trump’s plan to begin to open up the United States by Easter on April 12. Widespread stay-at-home and other state and local orders have smothered the U.S. economy. On the morning prior to the release of Trump’s letter, the…

Federal Appeals Court Blocks Withholding of Funds for Sanctuary Jurisdictions

A federal appeals court has struck down a Trump administration policy that withholds millions of dollars in law enforcement grants from so-called sanctuary states as part of a campaign to pressure them to cooperate with immigration law enforcement, which is a federal responsibility.

Getting tough on illegal immigration has been President Donald Trump’s signature issue.

In 2017, the administration began to require that U.S. immigration officials be granted access to jails and that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) be provided advance notice before local authorities release an illegal alien wanted by ICE.

Almost immediately, states and cities that harbor illegal aliens began to resist the directive.

In the case at hand, two Rhode Island municipalities, Providence and Central Falls, sued the federal government after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) withheld grants under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program. The program, created by Congress in 2005, is named after a New York police officer killed in the line of duty in 1988 at the age of 22.

The grants are distributed based on, among other factors, the recipient jurisdiction’s population and violent crime rates.

The ruling by the Boston-based 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in the case known as City of Providence v. Barr came March 24. Former U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter participated in the decision, ruling against the Trump administration. Former justices are allowed to sit on federal courts of appeals after leaving the Supreme Court.

In this case, the U.S. district court that first heard the lawsuit sided with the two municipalities, and the DOJ appealed.

The 1st Circuit opinion, written by Judge Bruce Selya, mocked the DOJ for its “kitchen-sink-full of clever legal arguments,” ruling that the agency “lacked the authority to impose the challenged conditions.”

“When the federal government deals with state and local governments, it must turn square corners. Here, the DOJ took an impermissible shortcut when it attempted to impose the challenged conditions on the Cities’ FY2017 Byrne JAG grants—conditions that Congress had not vested the DOJ with authority to impose,” the court stated.

The court noted that there is now what lawyers call a “circuit split” because the various circuits of the U.S. Court of Appeals don’t agree on how to handle this specific legal issue. Judges in the appeals courts for the 3rd, 7th, and 9th Circuits, have ruled against the Trump administration on this issue. The disagreement could eventually be resolved by the Supreme Court in the nation’s capital.

When oral arguments were heard, three courts of appeals “had refused to enforce some or all of the challenged conditions,” but between then and March 24, the 2nd Circuit upheld those challenged conditions, creating a circuit split, Selya wrote.

In the New York-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals’ unanimous ruling in favor of the administration, Judge Reena Raggi acknowledged that as issues, sanctuary jurisdictions and immigration enforcement have had a polarizing effect on society.

“The case implicates several of the most divisive issues confronting our country and, consequently, filling daily news headlines: national immigration policy, the enforcement of immigration laws, the status of illegal aliens in this country, and the ability of States and localities to adopt policies on such matters contrary to, or at odds with, those of the federal government.”

At the same time, Raggi rejected the sanctuary states’ argument that attaching conditions to federal grants unconstitutionally “intrude[s] on powers reserved to the States.” At that time, a DOJ spokesman praised the decision, saying it “rightfully recognizes the lawful authority of the Attorney General to ensure that Department of Justice grant recipients are not at the same time thwarting federal law enforcement priorities.”

“DOJ declines comment,” Alexei Woltornist, a public affairs officer for the department, said via email, in response to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.

This article is from the Internet:Federal Appeals Court Blocks Withholding of Funds for Sanctuary Jurisdictions

Exclusive: As CCP Virus Spreads, US Military to Withhold Some Infection Data

The U.S. military has decided it will stop providing some of the more granular data about CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus infections within its ranks out of concern that the information might be used by adversaries as the CCP virus spreads. The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper outlined the plan in an interview with Reuters, saying that he wanted the military to keep providing broader data about infections in the armed forces, which rose by 30 percent to 227 cases on March 25. But Esper, a former Army secretary, said he wanted some of…