Federal judge dismisses Trump administration's lawsuit against Chicago over its sanctuary city policies
In a 64-page decision, District Court Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins, a Biden appointee, granted a motion by the state of Illinois to dismiss the case after determining the United States lacks standing to sue over the sanctuary policies.
The judge noted in the ruling that Illinois' decision to enact the sanctuary laws are protected by the 10th amendment, which declares that any powers not specifically given to the federal government, or denied to the states, by the Constitution, are retained by the states.
'The Sanctuary Policies reflect Defendants' decision to not participate in enforcing civil immigration law—a decision protected by the Tenth Amendment and not preempted by the [Immigration and Nationality Act],' the judge wrote. 'Because the Tenth Amendment protects Defendants' Sanctuary Policies, those Policies cannot be found to discriminate against or regulate the federal government.'
The federal judge wrote that granting the administration's request would create an "end-run around the Tenth Amendment."
'It would allow the federal government to commandeer States under the guise of intergovernmental immunity—the exact type of direct regulation of states barred by the Tenth Amendment.'
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker praised the dismissal, which he said will ensure state law enforcement is "not carrying out the Trump administration's unlawful policies or troubling tactics."
"As state law allows, Illinois will assist the federal government when they follow the law and present warrants to hold violent criminals accountable. But what Illinois will not do is participate in the Trump administration's violations of the law and abuses of power," Pritzker said in a statement.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump Justice Department sued the state of Illinois and Cook County, the home of Chicago, in February for policies it argued infringed on the ability of federal authorities to enforce immigration laws, the first lawsuit by the administration aimed specifically at targeting "sanctuary jurisdictions," a label applied to states, cities, counties or municipalities that establish laws to prevent or limit local officials from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
In the 22-page lawsuit, filed days after Attorney General Pam Bondi was confirmed by the Senate, the Justice Department sought to block state, city and county ordinances that prohibit local law enforcement from assisting the federal government with civil immigration enforcement absent a criminal warrant. Bondi said the policies "obstruct" the federal government.
'The challenged provisions of Illinois, Chicago, and Cook County law reflect their intentional effort to obstruct the Federal Government's enforcement of federal immigration law and to impede consultation and communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for federal officials to carry out federal immigration law and keep Americans safe,' the lawsuit indicates.
The administration has taken similar action to target sanctuary jurisdictions across the country, including a lawsuit this week against New York City, which was described by the Justice Department as 'the vanguard of interfering with enforcing this country's immigration laws' in a complaint filed on Thursday. The administration filed a separate lawsuit targeting New York state in February over it's 'Green Light Law,' which enables undocumented immigrants to apply for noncommercial driver's licenses and bars state officials from turning over that data to federal immigration authorities.
The Justice Department in June filed a complaint against Los Angeles for immigration policies it argued interfere and discriminate against federal immigration agents by treating them differently from other law enforcement agents in the state. The suit came as Trump administration officials increasingly sparred with California Democratic leaders after immigration detainment efforts in the state led to clashes between protesters and federal authorities, and resulted in the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops.
In January, Trump signed an executive order directing Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to ensure sanctuary jurisdictions 'do not receive access to federal funds' and to consider pursuing criminal or civil penalties if localities 'interfere with the enforcement of Federal law.'
A federal judge in April blocked the effort to withhold federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions, finding that Trump's order violated the Constitution's separation of powers principles. That judge blocked an earlier effort by Trump in 2017.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's pursuit of meeting with Chinese leader reveals the complex web of US-China relations
WASHINGTON (AP) — China, the adversary. China, the friend? These days, maybe a bit of both. From easing export controls to reportedly blocking the Taiwanese president's plans to travel through the United States, President Donald Trump is raising eyebrows in Washington that he might offer concessions that could hurt U.S. interests in his quest to meet, and reach a deal with, the Chinese leader. There is no firm plan for Trump to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. But it's widely believed that the men must meet in person, likely in the fall, for the two governments to ink a trade deal, and some are worried that Xi is leveraging Trump's desire for more giveaways. "The summit mismatch is real. There's a clear gap between Trump's eagerness for a face-to-face with Xi and Beijing's reluctance to engage," said Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies. There are concerns that Trump may throttle back on export controls or investment curbs to preserve summit prospects, Singleton said, warning the risk 'isn't just in giving away too much' but also "in letting Beijing set the tempo.' China-U.S. relations have pinballed often since Washington established relations with communist-led Beijing in 1979. They've hit highs and lows — the latter in the aftermath of the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, after a 2001 incident involving a U.S. spy plane, during the COVID pandemic and right now. Both countries have struggled to understand each other, which has sometimes gotten in the way of deeper partnerships. And this time around, there's a wild card: the anything-might-happen second presidency of Trump. Disputes often accompany potential US-China leader meetings Efforts by a U.S. president to meet the head of the authoritarian Chinese government have often met with partisan outcries — which happened when former President Joe Biden hosted Xi in California in 2023. But Trump's case is peculiar, partly because he is willing to break with conventional political restraints to make deals and partly because his own party has grown hawkish towards China over national security. 'With President Trump, everything seems to be open for negotiation, and there are few if any red lines,' said Gabriel Wildau, managing director of the global consultancy Teneo. 'The hawks worry that if Trump gets into a room with Xi, he will agree to extraordinary concessions, especially if he believes that a big, beautiful deal is within reach.' While most Republican lawmakers have not voiced their concerns openly, Democrats are vocal in their opposition. "President Trump is giving away the farm to Xi just so he can save face and reach a nonsensical trade deal with Beijing that will hurt American families economically," said Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. On Tuesday, Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the Trump administration 'has not wavered — and will never waver — in safeguarding our national and economic security to put America first.' 'The administration continues to have productive conversations with China to address longstanding unfair trade practices,' Desai said, adding that export controls on cutting-edge technology and many tariffs remain in place. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, after his latest round of trade negotiations with the Chinese in July, told CNBC that the team was 'very careful to keep trade and national security separate.' And Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appearing on Fox News Radio, said the U.S. remains 'as committed as ever to our partners ... in places like Taiwan' but also spoke of the strategic need to keep trade ties with China steady. 'In the end, we have two big, the two largest economies in the world,' Rubio said. 'An all-out trade conflict between the U.S. and China, I think the U.S. would benefit from it in some ways, but the world would be hurt by it." There's worry over Taiwan Taiwan is concerned that the self-governing island could be 'trade-able' when Trump seeks a deal with Beijing, said Jason Hsu, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former legislator in Taiwan. 'Our concern is that, will any of the trade deals lead to concession on political support for Taiwan?" Hsu said, citing the case last month where the White House allegedly blocked a request for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to transit through the United States. The U.S. maintains unofficial ties with Taiwan and has always allowed such transits in the past. Experts are worried that the Trump administration is setting a bad precedent, and Democrats have seized on it to criticize Trump. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, called the move 'both a sharp break from precedent and another example of the Trump administration caving to China in hopes of reaching a trade deal." He said the policy decision 'sends a dangerous signal' that Taiwan's democracy is negotiable. Hsu said Taiwan fears that Trump could be coerced or compelled to support the one-China principle, as espoused by Beijing, that acknowledges Beijing's sovereignty claim over the island. There are also concerns that Trump might utter anything in support of 'unification." That was a request Beijing raised with the Biden administration, though it failed to get a positive response. Now, it's upon Taiwan to persuade Trump to think of the island as 'an economic partner rather than something that he can trade when he negotiates with China,' Hsu said, suggesting that Taiwan step up defense commitments, increase energy procurement, open its market to U.S. companies and invest more in the U.S. But Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said Trump is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act, a domestic law that obligates the U.S. to maintain an unofficial relationship with the island and provides it with sufficient hardware to deter any invasion by China. 'He can dial the (U.S.-Taiwan) relationship up and down," Sun said, "but he can't remove the relationship.' Export controls have been instituted, to mixed results In April, the White House, citing national security, announced it would restrict sales of Nvidia's H20 computer chips to China. The ban was lifted about three months later, when the two governments had climbed down from sky-high tariffs and harsh trade restrictions. The decision upset both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Rep. John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on China, wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to stress that the U.S. cannot let the Chinese Communist Party 'use American chips to train AI models that will power its military, censor its people, and undercut American innovation.' In Stockholm, Bessent pushed back at the concern that national security might be compromised. 'We are very diligent,' Bessent said, adding there's an interagency process that involves the National Security Council and the Defense Department for decisions. 'There's nothing that's being exchanged for anything,' Bessent said. Addressing H20 chips specifically, Bessent said they 'are well down" Nvidia's "technology chips stack.' U.S. companies are banned from selling their most advanced chips to China. That might not be persuasive enough. Teneo's Wildau said China hawks are most worried that the H20 decision could be the beginning of a series of moves to roll back export controls from the Biden era, which were once considered 'permanent and non-negotiable.' Didi Tang, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Epstein accomplice Maxwell opposes unsealing grand jury transcripts
Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, asked a judge on Tuesday to reject a US Justice Department request to unseal the grand jury transcripts in her criminal case and that of the late notorious sex offender. "Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not," Maxwell's lawyers said in a filing with the federal judge in New York who is considering the government request. "Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain," the attorneys said. Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of recruiting underage girls for Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. President Donald Trump's supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said last month that the wealthy financier had committed suicide while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a "client list." In a bid to calm the furor, the Justice Department is seeking the release of the grand jury transcripts from the cases against Epstein and Maxwell. US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, also met recently with Maxwell but has not revealed what was discussed. Trump was asked on Tuesday about the meeting and said it was "not an uncommon thing" and was "totally above board." "I think (Blanche) probably wants to make sure that, you know, people that should not be involved, or aren't involved, are not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people," he said. Trump also told reporters that he was not aware of Maxwell's recent move from a prison in Florida to a minimum security facility in Texas until after it happened. - 'Firestorm of false reporting' - Trump, 79, was once a close friend of Epstein, and The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the president's name was among hundreds found during a Justice Department review of the so-called "Epstein files," though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing. Trump filed a $10 billion defamation suit against the newspaper after it reported that he had penned a sexually suggestive letter to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. Maxwell is the only former Epstein associate convicted in connection with his activities, which right-wing conspiracy theorists allege included trafficking young girls for VIPs and other elites. In their filing with Judge Paul Engelmayer, Maxwell's lawyers said she was "convicted in a media firestorm of false reporting" and noted that she has appealed her conviction to the Supreme Court. "The government seeks to unseal the grand jury transcripts, citing 'historical interest' without regard for how that release will affect Maxwell's privacy interests, her pending (Supreme Court) Petition, and any future litigation," they said. Her lawyers also said Maxwell has not been been allowed to review the transcripts even though the government has not opposed her request to do so. cl/jgc
New York Post
29 minutes ago
- New York Post
Babbling Biden's claims of Trump trashing the constitution are straight hypocrisy
Last week, Biden addressed the National Bar Association. He demanded $300,000. I hear he took less. Speech halting. Words scripted. His burble — minus explanation — said President Trump's trashing the Constitution. Joe Babble pumped up the Supreme Court with his ideological types, allowed transpeople into the military, supported college violations, permitted nearly 14 million foreigners through our borders and stayed caring daddy to his sticky-fingered son. What worked with Biden was a sticky middle finger. Advertisement They built to last Peter Kalikow. Realtor. Onetime, short-time owner of the now about-to-be countrywide NY Post. Some festivities. His invite says it's 100 years of celebrating Kalikow's excellence. The company. The family. 'This landmark event honors a century of the Kalikow family's legacy in New York real estate. It commemorates 100 years of leadership, innovation, and impact on the city's skyline and communities.' This whole city — minus those lying on the street — will all be there. Advertisement Jackman's clean cut past Hugh Jackman's been in the news because of his recent divorce and more recent affair with his also recent B'way co-star Sutton Foster. But I heard that once he did a semi-nude bathtub scene for the aulde 2001 movie 'Kate & Leopold.' The director cut it. Hugh said: 'Thank goodness they cut it. Now people won't give me a hard time doing nudity.' The director said the scene was cut because it 'didn't really fit the film, but it will definitely be in the DVD.' Advertisement 'Ugh,' said Jackman. Now nobody can see it — or him — except for maybe Sutton Foster. Hometown Bills Bill O'Reilly: 'I watched the Billy Joel documentary. We were both raised in Levittown. He in the Hicksville section, me in the Westbury precinct. 'Nobody had air-conditioning. We spent summer nights at the municipal swimming pool. Joel's crew was right out of 'Grease.' Slicked hair, cigarettes, T-shirt, chewing gum. We'd sing a cappella. If you sang off-key you could wind up in the pool.' Advertisement Awaiting groom NYC beauty shop owner who shall remain nameless — or customerless: 'You see bra straps that are filthy. A man wouldn't put on day-old socks — why do ladies do that? 'Females today need grooming. Also more sexual awakening. 'I have customers all ages but a woman doesn't turn beautiful until she's maybe 35. Needs character. Who wants a child? 'The right colors attract. Second is the body. Notice her tush. The curves. Her physicality. Walks well, sits well, uses all she's got. For me she has to dress well, walk well — definitely not smell. 'I beautify women all day. I certainly don't want to go to bed with a child.' Advertisement Some cable stations keep showing reruns of old TV series like 'Dick Van Dyke' or 'Laugh-In.' Forget your television set now creating exciting new content. They're offering refills. Next year you want news? It'll be an AI machine that looks like a juiced-up Walter Cronkite. Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
