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Feds can’t withhold public safety grants for Oregon, city of Portland based on sanctuary law,...
The Oregonian ^ | August 8, 2019 | Maxine Bernstein

Posted on 08/08/2019 8:39:58 AM PDT by jazusamo

Full title:Feds can’t withhold public safety grants for Oregon, city of Portland based on sanctuary law, judge rules

A judge has barred the Trump administration from withholding public safety grants from the state and the city of Portland over Oregon’s sanctuary law that directs police not to help federal agents enforce immigration policies.

U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane also said the federal government can’t impose immigration-related conditions on the grant awards.

McShane, who is seated in Eugene, issued his 44-page decision late Wednesday in a case brought in November by Gov. Kate Brown, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and the city against President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General William Barr.

He found that two federal statutes unconstitutionally ban local and state governments and agencies from enacting laws or policies that limit communication with federal officials about immigration or someone’s citizenship status.

McShane ruled the statutes, identified as Sections 1373 and 1644 of the federal code, violate the 10th Amendment, which says any power not expressly given to the federal government falls to the states or their people.

Since 2017, the federal government has placed restrictions on Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance grants, known as JAG. The grants provide money to states, cities, counties and tribes for criminal justice personnel, training and equipment.

The conditions say the grant recipients must allow immigration agents access to prisons or jails , must give advance notice to federal officials when prisoners wanted on immigration detainers are to be released, and must certify that they’re complying with the federal statutes.

But McShane said Oregon and Portland “would, under any of these circumstances, risk public safety by eroding trust with immigrant communities or abandoning critical law enforcement initiatives funded by the Byrne JAG Program.”

He granted a permanent injunction and ordered the federal government to give the grants to Oregon for fiscal 2017 and 2018 that it withheld, with no conditions or penalties – a total of almost $5 million.

“The President of the United States and his Attorney General seek to advance their policy priorities by pressuring states and localities to comply with two immigration-related laws and by withholding federal funds from jurisdictions which refuse to assist immigration authorities,’”the judge noted.

McShane agreed with lawyers for the state and city, who argued the federal statutes are “unconstitutional intrusions upon their legislative independence” and that the funding conditions are contrary to the intent of Congress.

“Instances when the Attorney General may ‘withhold or re-allocate’ Byrne JAG funds were carefully delineated by Congress. When Congress wanted grantees to engage in or refrain from certain types of conduct — even information sharing — it provided for specific and measured penalties,” the judge wrote. “If Congress had shared the same concerns about grantees disclosing immigration-related information, it could have enacted analogous penalties. But it did not.’’

The state had expected to receive $2,034,945 from the grants for 2017 and $2,092,704 for 2018, while Portland expected to receive $385,515 for 2017 and $391,694 for 2018.

But the state didn’t receive notice of the grant awards for either year until last month because the U.S. Justice Department expressed concerns about the state’s sanctuary law. The state law bars local law enforcement from helping federal officials identify or detain anyone solely for violating immigration law.

Although the Justice Department made the money available to the state in July, the state can’t accept or draw from the money without risking penalties due to the sanctuary law, according to court records.

The city of Portland received its 2017 award last October but has yet to receive its 2018 award. It also would risk penalties if it accepted and used the money.

The Trump administration argued that the Justice Department’s pressure on states and municipalities to repeal their allegedly incompatible laws and policies “are essential to a properly functioning system of federal immigration laws,’’ according to court records.

Until 2017, the state had received the federal grants annually since the program’s creation in 2005, using more than $26 million to support programs for mental health treatment, technology improvement and drug treatment and enforcement. The state would like to use the 2017 and 2018 money to support specialty courts for drugs crimes or mental health cases or nonviolent felony offenders as well as to provide assistance to local crime victims.

Portland also had received the money every year until 2017, using it to buy bulletproof vests and special-threat plates for officers, acquire tactical medical kits, install GPS systems in its cars and add two victim advocates to the Police Bureau’s sex crimes unit. The city also has distributed some of the money to Multnomah County and Gresham to support a neighborhood prosecutor or an additional probation/parole officer.

McShane’s ruling mirrors similar ones by federal judges elsewhere in the country.

In December, for example, a federal judge in New York issued a permanent injunction barring immigration conditions on the grants for New York state, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, Washington, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York City. Last October, a federal judge in California also ruled that the grant conditions were unconstitutional.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled a year ago that Trump’s order to withhold federal grant money based on state sanctuary laws violates separation of power principles that gave spending power to Congress. But the same appeals court ruled last month in favor of the Trump administration’s immigration conditions for other federal police grants.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: Oregon
KEYWORDS: aliens; clownbammyjudge; federalfunds; ice; illegalaliens; judgemcshane; judiciary; obamajudge; oregon; portland; publicsafetygrants; resistancejudge; sanctuarycities; sanctuarylaw
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Another activist 9th Circus judge appointed by 0bama.

Michael J. McShane.JPG


Michael J. McShane

1 posted on 08/08/2019 8:39:58 AM PDT by jazusamo
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To: jazusamo

Every judge appointed by the usurper should be impeached and removed...................


2 posted on 08/08/2019 8:43:06 AM PDT by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain......................)
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To: jazusamo

Another day, another 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling headed for the dustbin of history.


3 posted on 08/08/2019 8:45:08 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (This space for rent.)
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To: jazusamo

To be appealed?


4 posted on 08/08/2019 8:45:12 AM PDT by Magnum44 (My comprehensive terrorism plan: Hunt them down and kill them.)
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To: Red Badger

Just another gift from Marxist Obama that keeps on giving.


5 posted on 08/08/2019 8:45:47 AM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: jazusamo

Leftist Judges must be removed.
Leftists in the media must be removed.
Leftists in our educational system must be removed.
Leftists in our government must be removed.

After that, we can begin removing leftists from our country in general.

I’m thinking that’s the only way America is going to survive, because their warped ideology, contempt for the law, and desire to destroy everything our country stands for is like a cancer that’s simply not going to stop until something is done about it.

Of course, just what that something IS, I don’t know.

The voting booth seems like a good solution - but when 95% of the time our choice is between a destructive anti-American Democrat and a destructive anti-American Democrat pretending to be a Republican, I don’t know where that leaves us.

We need a new party. A Trump party. We need it yesterday. If we elect ALL new people - trustworthy people... good people... THEY, in turn, will nominate and place good people in positions like this worthless “judge” who thinks that HE runs America.


6 posted on 08/08/2019 8:46:05 AM PDT by Pravious
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To: jazusamo

Another dumb a$$ lib judge making laws rather than doing his job.


7 posted on 08/08/2019 8:46:07 AM PDT by Agatsu77
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To: jazusamo

How can we remove these idiots.


8 posted on 08/08/2019 8:47:20 AM PDT by Agatsu77
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To: jazusamo

So McShame says rebellion against the Federal Union is OK?

Someone tell Jeff Davis


9 posted on 08/08/2019 8:47:57 AM PDT by Regulator
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To: DoughtyOne

Yeah sanctuary cities are ILLEGAL.


10 posted on 08/08/2019 8:48:13 AM PDT by dp0622 (Bad, bad company Till the day I die.)
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To: jazusamo

So now the states can have their own immigration laws. Until we get a Democrat president. Then the shoe’ll be on the other foot like it was with Obama and the State of Arizona’s governor. Remember that one with the face-off on the tarmac? In that one federal law trumped state law. No judge interfered. These b$%tards get to butter their bread on both sides.


11 posted on 08/08/2019 8:48:15 AM PDT by 4Runner
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To: jazusamo

The hell?! These twits ignored the 10th amendment when states tried to bar Obama from flooding their states with illegal immigrants and these same judges said that immigration authority is 110% whatever Obama says it is.

Now that Trump is in office the judges now proclaim that states are the ultimate authority and the federal government must give them all money even if they enact unconstitutional laws blocking federal execution of the powers these self-same judges said lied exclusively with the federal government (that’s “by law”) by now saying that those judicial rulings don’t count “as law” and therefore this is a 10th amendment violation of separation of powers.

It’s a nonsensical rational and reasoning on its face and it’s BS and nothing more than a judge ruling in a political manner. But then Roberts tells me this can’t be the case because no rulings are politically motivated.


12 posted on 08/08/2019 8:49:04 AM PDT by Skywise
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To: dp0622

Yep


13 posted on 08/08/2019 8:49:28 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (This space for rent.)
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To: EagleUSA

It would create chaos in the judicial system, but it could be done. Every case they ever ruled upon would be thrown out.............


14 posted on 08/08/2019 8:49:46 AM PDT by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain......................)
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To: jazusamo

I suppose I have been mistaken in my assumption that federal grants are distributed soley at the discretion of the federal government?

So, receiving federal grants is now a himan right?


15 posted on 08/08/2019 8:49:48 AM PDT by Skooz (Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
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To: jazusamo

I’m calling Red Fag on this one!


16 posted on 08/08/2019 8:51:04 AM PDT by The Toll
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To: dp0622

The best part about this is that it applies to ANY federal law - gun ownership, land and usage rights, whatever.

If the Dems want to support lawlessness (and they do) then we happily give it to them.


17 posted on 08/08/2019 8:51:37 AM PDT by Skywise
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To: jazusamo

We are at civil war against the communist Democrats. Wake up America. The violence has started with the insane and hard core communists groups. Sanctuary cities are Democratic hell holes and the base for the communists.


18 posted on 08/08/2019 8:51:44 AM PDT by Logical me
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To: jazusamo

“Another activist 9th Circus judge appointed by 0bama.”

That isn’t true! He is not a member of the Ninth Circuit. He’s just your “garden variety” Obama $hit District Judge!


19 posted on 08/08/2019 8:51:45 AM PDT by vette6387
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MAGA!

Support Free Republic Folks, Donate Today!

Please bump the Freepathon or click above to donate or become a monthly donor!

20 posted on 08/08/2019 8:52:13 AM PDT by jazusamo (Have You Donated to Keep Free Republic Up and Running?)
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