Tag: Sanctuary cities

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News Round-Up: April 28, 2020

Gus Kenworthy and Birdie (via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • New York Times: National Institutes of Health scientists in Montana last month inoculated six rhesus macaque monkeys (considered the closest equivalent to humans) with single doses of a vaccine developed by the Oxford University’s Jenner Institute. The animals were then exposed to heavy quantities of the virus that is causing the pandemic — exposure that had consistently sickened other monkeys in the lab. But more than 28 days later all six were healthy. • InstaHunks: I spent about a year studying the guitar when I was younger, and I was terrible. Woofy Gus Kenworthy (top) has really learned a lot in just two months. Color me impresssed. But it looks like his best fur pal Birdie isn’t feeling it. Watch below.

 

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I’ve spent the past two months trying to learn the guitar and my dog is… honestly not very impressed.

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• Reuters: A study of more than 1400 LGBT+ women – one of the largest of its kind – found 37% of lesbian mothers in the UK suffered discrimination from other parents, while the same number’s children were victimized. • Bloomberg News: Donald Trump indicated today he’s considering withholding COVID-19 financial assistance from blue states unless they agree to do away with sanctuary cities. Note: states like California and New York, which have sanctuary cities, already send much more to the federal government than they receive.

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Two people in Georgia drank liquid cleaning products over the weekend in misguided attempts to ward off COVID-19, according to the Georgia Poison Center. Both men had histories of psychiatric problems and are expected to recover. • The Gaily Grind: ABC News correspondent Will Reeve, the son of the late “Superman” actor Christopher Reeve, accidentally revealed to the nation that he wasn’t wearing any pants while doing a live report on “Good Morning America” from his home. The 27-year-old’s camera was angled down and revealed that the correspondent was not wearing any pants as he sat on a stool immediately generating reactions on social media after the moment on “Good Morning America” went viral.

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Appeals Court Rules Against Trump’s Withholding of Federal Funds For Sanctuary Cities

Donald Trump

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled Donald Trump’s executive order to withhold funds from so-called ‘sanctuary cities’ to be unconstitutional.

The ruling notes that federal funds can only be withheld by Congressional authorization.

Via Politico:

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that federal funding could be withheld only with congressional authorization. The appeals court also noted that the U.S. District Court went too far by blocking the policy nationwide, and sent back the case for “reconsideration and further findings.”

“We conclude that, under the principle of Separation of Powers and in consideration of the Spending Clause, which vests exclusive power to Congress to impose conditions on federal grants, the Executive Branch may not refuse to disperse the federal grants in question without congressional authorization,” a three-member panel of the 9th Circuit said in its 2-to-1 ruling.

Trump signed an executive order in January 2017 that dealt with interior immigration enforcement. The 9th Circuit on Wednesday ruled against a provision that limited funding to jurisdictions that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement — also known as sanctuary cities.

The executive order focused on a federal statute that prohibits federal, state and local officials from restricting the sharing of information related to an individual’s immigration or citizenship status. While the appeals court didn’t rule on that statute, U.S.C. 1373, a Chicago-based federal judge in late July found it unconstitutional in separate lawsuit over withholding of federal grants over immigration enforcement. That ruling was limited to the city of Chicago, the plaintiff in the case.

The Justice Department issued a statement Wednesday condemning the ruling as a “victory for criminal aliens in California” and said the department will continue to be committed to “keeping criminal aliens off the streets.”

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Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Attempt To Block Funds For Sanctuary Cities

I’m not sure this is the kind of “winning” Donald Trump meant when he told the American people during the campaign we’d see so much “winning” we’d get sick of it.

Someone might want to introduce the Attorney General to a lawyer.

From Bloomberg:

A judge in San Francisco blocked President Donald Trump from withholding funds from so-called sanctuary cities that give safe harbor to undocumented immigrants, marking the administration’s second major policy initiative declared likely unconstitutional.

San Francisco and its Silicon Valley neighbor, Santa Clara County, on Tuesday both won preliminary orders shelving the Jan. 25 edict by Trump, who threatened the budgets of cities nationwide that fail to comply with federal immigration demands.

Trump has declared that sanctuary jurisdictions cause “immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our republic.” But U.S. District Judge William Orrick agreed with the city and county that the the president’s order violated the Constitution in threatening to deprive them of funding for local programs.

Basically, the President can’t control spending. Only the Congress can.

As Judge Orrick wrote, “The Constitution vests the spending power in Congress, not the President, so the Order cannot constitutionally place new conditions on federal funds.”

And there you have it.