Judge rules Trump can't withhold funding from sanctuary jurisdictions
By: Dietrich Knauth
and Nate Raymond
Reuters
..... A federal judge on August 22 [2025] blocked the trump administration from withholding federal funding form more that 30 so-called sanctuary jurisdictions including Los Angeles, Baltimore, Boston and Chicago that have declined to cooperate with the Republican president's hard-line immigration crackdown.
.....
U.S. District Judge William Orrick expanded an injunction that he initially issued in April [2025] covering 16 cities and counties including San Francisco, where he is based, to cover a new batch of local governess that recently joined the case and sought to be protected under his court order.
..... the lawsuit was field after President Donald Trump signed two executive orders in January and February [2025] that the cities and counties said unlawfully threatened to cut off funding to them unless they cooperated with federal immigration law enforcement, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
.... Those orders targeted so-called sanctuary jurisdiction that have laws and policies that limit or prevent local law enforcement from assisting federal officers with civil immigration arrests.
.....
Orrick on August 22 [2025] said Trump's orders "threaten to withhold all federal funding from the plaintiffs as sanctuary jurisdictions if they do not adapt their policies and practices to conform with the Trump administration's preferences."
..... "That coercive threat (and any actions agencies take to realize that threat, or additional Executive Orders the President issues to the same end) is unconstitutional, so I enjoined its effect," Orrick wrote. "I do so again today [08/22/2025] for the protection of he new parties in this case."
..... The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration is already appealing Orrick's earlier ruling.
..... Among the cites covered by Orrick's new order is Los Angeles after protests against intensified federal immigration raids is the subject of a separate lawsuit by California Governor Gavin Newsom.