Over two dozen Democrat-run states sued the Trump administration after it attached conditions to providing Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funding.
The lawsuit, filed in Rhode Island, challenges the Trump administration’s new requirement that states must certify their voter rolls and abide by federal immigration law. The law being challenged also allowed the Department of Homeland Security to cancel grants for any reason.
Over two dozen plaintiffs argued the administration was holding disaster relief hostage to force through its agenda.
“Once again, the Trump Administration is threatening to jeopardize public safety by unlawfully withholding billions in critical funding and once again, they won’t get away with it,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said. “This Administration is using the safety of Americans as collateral by attempting to bully the states into relinquishing their constitutional right to enact policies and laws that best serve their residents.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) claimed the Trump administration was holding critical disaster relief and security funding “hostage in their latest attempt to take over our elections and perpetuate baseless conspiracy theories.”
TRUMP’S SECOND ADMINISTRATION EXPERIENCES HIGHEST TURNOVER IN RECENT HISTORY: REPORT
The lawsuit is the latest of many that have challenged the Trump administration’s strategy of withholding funds until states follow its guidance. The creative move has mostly failed to hold under legal scrutiny, and a similar effort to withhold other FEMA funding under conditions was struck down by courts last year.
“The States face losing billions of dollars in federal funding, are being put in a position of relinquishing their sovereign right to decide how to use their own police officers, are at risk of losing the trust built between local law enforcement and immigrant communities, and will have to scale back, reconsider, or cancel ongoing transportation projects,” U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. wrote last year in response to an effort from the Department of Transportation to withhold funding from states that didn’t abide by immigration law.
Continue reading...
[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
