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FILE - In this April 14, 2017, file photo, protesters hold up signs outside a courthouse where a federal judge was to hear arguments in the first lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's executive order to withhold funding from communities that limit cooperation with immigration authorities in San Francisco. A federal judge Monday, Nov. 20, 2017, has permanently blocked President Donald Trump's executive order to cut funding from cities that limit cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities. San Francisco and Santa Clara County had filed lawsuits. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)
A federal judge has permanently blocked President Donald Trump's executive order to cut funding from cities that limit cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities.
U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick issued the ruling on Monday in lawsuits brought by two California counties, San Francisco and Santa Clara. Orrick said Trump cannot set new conditions on spending approved by Congress.
The ruling nullifies the executive order Trump signed in January, shortly after taking office, which was designed to crack down on so-called "sanctuary cities," municipalities that do not comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests for assistance with identifying and deporting undocumented immigrants.
Jurisdictions that have refused to comply include the cities of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The order was designed to "strip federal grant money from the sanctuary states and cities that harbor illegal immigrants," according to then-press secretary Sean Spicer. The executive order immediately prompted a court challenge, first by San Francisco and followed by other counties including Santa Clara.
Earlier challenges had brought cities in breach of the order a temporary reprieve. Those fighting the executive order celebrated the decision Monday.
"This is a victory for the American people and the rule of law," San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement. "This executive order was unconstitutional before the ink on it was even dry.
"We live in a democracy. No one is above the law, including the president."
However, a Department of Justice spokesman said the court had "exceeded its authority" in its ruling, and vowed that the department would continue to follow Trump's direction with regard to the January executive order.
Outgoing White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Friday that
President Trump did not want him to resign but Spicer felt there were
“too many cooks in the kitchen” promoting the president’s message.
“I just thought it was in the best interest of our communications department,
of our press organization, to not have too many cooks in the kitchen,” Spicer
told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview hours after he resigned from
the White House on Friday.
Spicer quit in apparent protest after Trump tapped Anthony Scaramucci as
White House communications director. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was
promoted Friday to replace Spicer.
“He wanted to bring some new folks in to help rev up the communications
operation, and after reflection, my decision was to recommend to the president
that I give Anthony and Sarah a clean slate to start from,” Spicer told Hannity.
Read more at http://trumptrainnews.com/articles/spicer-speaks-out-after-white-house-ouster#EFwLKymyqQDvFjLM.99
Sean Spicer Resigns as White House Press Secretary
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Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, during a briefing last month.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, resigned on Friday morning, telling President Trump he vehemently disagreed with the appointment of the New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director.
Mr. Trump offered Mr. Scaramucci the job at 10 a.m. The president requested that Mr. Spicer stay on, but Mr. Spicer told Mr. Trump that he believed the appointment was a major mistake, according to person with direct knowledge of the exchange.
Mr. Scaramucci, who founded the global investment firm SkyBridge Capital and is a Fox News Channel contributor, is known for his spirited on-air defense of Mr. Trump, but he also enjoys good relationships with journalists from an array of outlets, including those the president has labeled “fake news.”
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Anthony Scaramucci at Trump Tower last year. Mr. Scaramucci, who founded the global investment firm SkyBridge Capital and is a Fox News contributor, is known for his spirited on-air defense of President Trump.CreditSam Hodgson for The New York Times
His rumored departure has been one of the longest-running internal sagas in an administration brimming with dissension and intrigue. A former Republican National Committee spokesman and strategist, Mr. Spicer was a frequent target of the president’s ire — and correctives — during the first few months of the administration.
His resignation is a blow to the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, the former Republican Party chairman who brought Mr. Spicer into the West Wing despite skepticism from Mr. Trump, who initially questioned his loyalty.
Mr. Scaramucci was to meet with Mr. Priebus on Friday, according to a West Wing official — and applause could be heard in the second-floor communications hallway when Mr. Scaramucci was introduced.
During the transition, Mr. Trump had planned to appoint Mr. Scaramucci, a 52-year-old Harvard Law graduate from Long Island, as director of his office of public liaison, but the offer was pulled at the request of Mr. Priebus over concerns about Mr. Scaramucci’s overseas investments.
His appointment Friday came two months after the previous communications director, Mike Dubke, stepped down. Mr. Trump was frustrated with Mr. Priebus over the slow pace of finding a replacement, according to a half-dozen people familiar with the situation.
Mr. Trump made the appointment over the objection of Mr. Priebus, who thought Mr. Scaramucci lacked the requisite organizational or political experience. But the president believed Mr. Scaramucci, a ferocious defender of Mr. Trump’s on cable television, was best equipped to play the same role in-house, and he offered him a role with far-reaching powers independent of Mr. Priebus’s.
Mr. Spicer flatly rejected the president’s offer of a position subordinate to Mr. Scaramucci, according to two administration officials familiar with the exchange.
The appointment of Mr. Scaramucci, a favorite of Mr. Trump’s earliest campaign supporters, was backed by the president’s daughter Ivanka, his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the officials said.
News reporter Matt Drudge attends the White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel on April 30, 2005 in Washington D.C. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images)
Is President Trump Following Matt Drudge’s Advice?
Just days after conservative news magnate Matt Drudge said President Trump needs to clean house at the White House, Trump is reportedly considering doing exactly that.
“We never got 1 damaging leak out of Obama White House staff in 8 yrs. Under Trump, they appear hourly. BIG DANGER: Small leaks sink ships!!” Drudge tweeted last week in response to a new flood of leaks from White House staffers. He added: “Trump advisers leaking to media are now deliberately sabotaging presidency. Major house cleaning needed for survival.”
Now, Trump is considering firing many of the members of his inner circle, including press secretary Sean Spicer, chief of staff Reince Preibus, White House counsel Don McGahn and chief strategist Steve Bannon, according to a Sunday report in Axios.
The Trump White House has struggled to cap a flood of leaks coming from White House staffers and other members of the executive branch.
The regular leaks were reportedly behind Trump’s decision to keep staffers in the dark about his firing of then-FBI Director James Comey. A report in the Associated Press said that Trump was worried staffers would leak his decision to the press.
Drudge, who is known for avoiding the media spotlight him, is routinely named one of the most influential people in the news media. A Business Insider story last summer dubbed Drudge, “The man who could have stopped Donald Trump.”
