This one will become very interesting. Grants certainly are discretionary. Every executive branch agency makes the rules on how the grants are dispensed. The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that agencies can do this. The Justice Department in this case has said they will continue. If the Supreme Court gets involved and says that they can no longer do that, it will force Congress to do their job and actually make decisions. All goodness from my perspective.
U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber issued the opinion which could impact DOJ policy nationwide.
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Justice Department from withholding grant funds from places that do not provide immigration authorities access to local jails or give advance notice when suspected illegal immigrants are to be released — dealing a major blow to the Trump administration’s vowed crackdown on sanctuary cities.
U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber in Illinois wrote in a 41-page opinion that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had probably exceeded his lawful authority when he imposed new conditions on particular law enforcement grants, requiring recipients to give immigration authorities access to jails and notice when suspected illegal immigrants are to be released.
The judge blocked Sessions from implementing the conditions not just on the city of Chicago — which had sued over the matter — but also across the nation, writing that there was “no reason to think that the legal issues present in this case are restricted to Chicago or that the statutory authority given to the Attorney General would differ in another jurisdiction.”
His ruling follows an order from another federal judge in California blocking President Trump’s executive order on sanctuary cities.
The DOJ is unmoved.