Trump lashes out after judge bats down another immigration order

President Trump. (Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)
President Trump (Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)

President Trump lashed out early Wednesday after the federal court system stymied yet another one of his executive orders on immigration.

“First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court!” he wrote in an early morning tweet.

In a Tuesday ruling, U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued a temporary injunction against Trump’s executive order to withhold funding from “sanctuary cities,” or places that limit the extent to which local enforcement can comply with orders from federal immigration officials. Orrick is a district judge and does not sit on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as Trump’s tweet indicated, but the 9th Circuit would hear any appeal on the case from the White House.

President Trump’s administration also issued a blistering, 400-word statement casting doubt on the judicial system’s role in U.S. government. The White House twice referred to Orrick as “unelected” and declared that his “ruling undermines faith in our legal system.” Both Trump’s tweets and the statement accused his critics of “shopping” for favorable courts.

Orrick’s decision cited Trump’s past statement, referring to his “sanctuary city” executive order as a “weapon” to coerce local governments into complying with the president’s more hardline view of illegal immigration.

“Federal funding that bears no meaningful relationship to immigration enforcement cannot be threatened merely because a jurisdiction chooses an immigration enforcement strategy of which the President disapproves,” Orrick wrote.

The ruling was only the latest setback in Trump’s unilateral attempts to shift immigration policy. In February, a federal judge blocked Trump’s travel ban, which temporarily suspended the U.S. refugee program and barred entry to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries.

The 9th Circuit rejected the White House’s request for an immediate reversal. “SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!” Trump responded on Twitter.

Then, as now, Trump questioned the authority of the court system. He referred to the Seattle justice first as a “so-called judge.”

“Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!” he tweeted in February.

Last month, federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland put the brakes on Trump’s revised travel ban, which was crafted to avoid some of the objections of the first.

And the president again lashed out. “It’s a political decision and we’re going to see them in court,” he said of the Hawaii judge’s ruling, “and I look forward to doing it.”

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