President Trump Will Challenge Sanctuary Cities Case in the Supreme Court

In the first few months of the Trump presidency, the Trump administration has lost several high-profile cases in court. The travel ban on visitors from select Muslim-majority countries was defeated in the Ninth Circuit, then retooled, then defeated again (which recently led to Attorney General Jeff Sessions taking a shot at Hawaii). On Tuesday, Ninth Circuit Court Judge William H. Orrick ruled that a January executive order withholding funding from so-called “sanctuary cities” was an overstepping of powers by the executive branch and that only Congress could control the purse strings in such a way.

That decision didn’t sit well with President Trump, who is approaching his 100th day in office and has really only experienced judicial losses during that time (save for the important appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court). Today, April 26, President Trump hit back against the Ninth Circuit and said: “First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings … See you in the Supreme Court!”

The specific injunction that President Trump is vowing to fight applies nationwide until Judge Orrick is able to rule on the constitutionality of the order. But, as The New York Times points out, Judge Orrick has “indicated strongly that he leaned against the Trump administration on the matter.”

As with the recent travel ban cases, the sanctuary city case is likely to make it to the Supreme Court with the newly minted Justice Gorsuch being able to rule. However, Justice Gorsuch gave no indication as to how he would rule on such cases during his extensive Congressional testimony. So it’s not a certainty that such rulings would be overturned.