Yesterday, in a lawsuit brought by twenty state courts, federal District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. ruled the Trump Administration violated the Constitution when it tried to deny federal transportation grants to states that refuse to help federal authorities detain and deport supposed illegal migrants. The court ruled the Department of Transportation acted illegally because Congress had not authorized it to impose any such conditions on transportation grants, and because immigration enforcement has no meaningful connection to the purpose of the grants:
Defendants' conduct violates the [Administrative Procedure Act] because they acted outside of their statutory authority when they issued the Duffy Directive and imposed the IEC categorically across all U.S. DOT grants when Congress appropriated those funds for transportation purposes, not immigration enforcement purposes….. Congress did not authorize or grant authority to the Secretary of Transportation to impose immigration enforcement conditions on federal dollars specifically appropriated for transportation purposes….
These conditions violate the Spending Clause as well; the IEC is not at all reasonably related to the transportation funding program grants whose statutorily articulated purposes are for the maintenance and safety of roads, highways, bridges, and development of other transportation projects. The Government does not cite to any plausible connection between cooperating with ICE enforcement and the
congressionally approved purposes of the Department of Transportation. Under the
Defendants' position, the Executive would be allowed to place any conditions it chose
on congressionally appropriated funds, even when it would be entirely unrelated to
the Department's purpose. Such is not how the three equal branches of government
are allowed to operate under our Constitution.
