Trump Loses Again -- This Time In Chicago -- Just As We Said He Would, Back In August...

Just as we said it would transpire, back in the first week of August, my fair City has brought the small-handed tyrant to heel -- once again. [Muslim Ban 1.0 and 2.0 epic failures being earlier examples.] And it really took very little time -- at all. 45's latest attempt to punish sanctuary cities has now been enjoined, nation-wide.

Since the early 1980s, the City of Big Shoulders has kept in effect one form or another of a "welcoming ordinance". That law "reflects the City’s belief that the 'cooperation of the City’s immigrant communities is essential to prevent and solve crimes and maintain public order, safety and security in the entire City' and that the 'assistance from a person, whether documented or not, who is a victim of, or a witness to, a crime is important to promoting the safety of all its residents'. . . ." In other words, we won't demonize someone simply because that person might arguably lack papers.

Against that specifically humane local law's backdrop, a very able federal District Court judge in Chicago has ruled today that Mr. Trump's attempt to add conditions to a statutory grant, where Congress specifically withheld the right of the President to add such conditions. . . cannot pass muster, and so my City is entitled to a preliminary injunction, stopping Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions from trying to enforce this extra-legislative attempt at law-making. Here is the finely-reasoned 41 pager -- and a bit:

. . . .The Attorney General’s reading of the statute therefore ignores the ostensibly clear decision by Congress to withhold comparable authority in the Byrne JAG provisions. See, N.L.R.B. v. SW General, Inc., 137 S.Ct. 929, 940 (2017) (noting the expressio unius canon’s application when “circumstances support a sensible inference that the term left out must have been meant to be excluded”) (quotations and alterations omitted). Regardless, it would be quite odd for Congress to give the Attorney General authority to impose conditions on the discretionary grants if it had already provided the Attorney General authority to impose conditions on all grants through Section 10102(a)(6). . . .

On this issue, Mr. Trump is so plainly out of bounds I'll likely not spend a lot of time covering subsequent wins -- should 45 attempt to press forward with this nonsense. If I do, it will be strictly for grins.

So you may henceforth safely assume that Mr. Trump's hare-brained Chicago-aimed scheme (like so many others) has died a simple death, if I do not mention it again. Onward, and goodnight -- wonderful Indian Summer weekend ahead here!

नमस्ते