A federal judge ruled that President Trump’s executive order withholding funds from sanctuary cities is unconstitutional.
“Here we are again,” Obama-appointed Judge William Orrick wrote.
“The challenged sections in the 2025 Executive Orders and the Bondi Directive that order executive agencies to withhold, freeze, or condition federal funding apportioned to localities by Congress, violate the Constitution’s separation of powers principles and the Spending Clause, as explained by the Ninth Circuit in the earlier iteration of this case in 2018; they also violate the Fifth Amendment to the extent they are unconstitutionally vague and violate due process,” the ruling says, noting that Trump’s orders also “violate the Tenth Amendment because they impose coercive condition intended to commandeer local officials into enforcing federal immigration practices and law.”
“The Cities and Counties have also demonstrated a likelihood of irreparable harm,” the judge added. “The threat to withhold funding causes them irreparable injury in the form of budgetary uncertainty, deprivation of constitutional rights, and undermining trust between the Cities and Counties and the communities they serve.”
Orrick wrote that the defendants and those working alongside them are restrained and enjoined from directly or indirectly taking any action to withhold, freeze, or condition federal funds.”
The decision largely affects the California areas of San Francisco, Santa Clara County, Monterey County, and the cities of Oakland, Emeryville, San Jose, San Diego, Sacramento, and Santa Cruz, although Portland, Oregon; New Haven, Connecticut; Minneapolis, Minnesota; St. Paul, Minnesota; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and King County, Washington are also involved.
