Who is Judge William Orrick? The San Francisco judge blocking Trump’s sanctuary city funding cuts

A U.S. federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from cutting off federal funding to more than 30 sanctuary jurisdictions such as Los Angeles, Baltimore, Boston, and Chicago. These places had refused to support Trump’s strict immigration crackdown, claims reports.

The ruling came from U.S. District Judge William Orrick, who is based in San Francisco. He expanded an earlier injunction he had given in April that protected 16 cities and counties, now adding new local governments that also asked for protection, as reported by Reuters.

Trump executive orders on sanctuary cities

The case started after Donald Trump signed two executive orders in January and February. The orders warned that cities and counties could lose funding unless they worked with federal immigration officers, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).


The orders mainly targeted sanctuary jurisdictions, which are cities or counties that have rules limiting local police from helping federal agents in civil immigration arrests.

ALSO READ: Trump targets Chicago after DC crime drop, plans National Guard help for big cities

Judge William Orrick calls policy unconstitutional

Judge Orrick wrote in his order that Trump’s policy threatened to withhold all federal funding unless the cities changed their policies to fit the administration’s preferences. He said this “coercive threat” is unconstitutional, so he blocked it again for the new group of cities, as stated by Reuters.

The judge explained, “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,”. The White House did not immediately respond when asked for comment. The Trump administration is also appealing Orrick’s earlier ruling, as per reports.

One major city affected by the new order is Los Angeles. Earlier, Trump had deployed the National Guard in June to patrol Los Angeles during protests against federal immigration raids. That deployment is now the subject of a separate lawsuit filed by California Governor Gavin Newsom, according to the report by Reuters.

Who is Judge William Orrick

Orrick was nominated in 2012 by Barrack Obama and served in the Department of Justice during the Obama years. Some of the notable cases that Judge Orrick—a lawyer as well—ruled over are the ban on Shark fin sale in 2014 in California and the case of pollution discharge in San Francisco Bay against PG&E among many others.

It’s not the first time that Orrick has ruffled the feathers of the Trump administration, with him previously blocking the Presidential executive order of restraining funding to sanctuary cities in April 2017, during Donald Trump’s first term.

FAQs

Q1. Why did Judge William Orrick block Trump’s order on sanctuary cities?
Judge Orrick blocked Trump’s order because he said threatening to cut all federal funding from sanctuary cities is unconstitutional.

Q2. Which cities are protected under Judge Orrick’s new ruling?
More than 30 cities including Los Angeles, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco are now protected under the ruling.