City of Chicago v. William P. Barr

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedApril 30, 2020
Docket18-2885
StatusPublished

This text of City of Chicago v. William P. Barr (City of Chicago v. William P. Barr) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Chicago v. William P. Barr, (7th Cir. 2020).

Opinion

In the

United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ Nos. 18-2885 & 19-3290 CITY OF CHICAGO, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General of the United States, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. Nos. 1:17-cv-05720 & 1:18-cv-06859 — Harry D. Leinenweber, Judge. ____________________

NO. 18-2885 ARGUED APRIL 10, 2019,

NO. 19-3290 SUBMITTED FEBRUARY 6, 2020

DECIDED APRIL 30, 2020 ____________________

Before BAUER, MANION, AND ROVNER, Circuit Judges. ROVNER, Circuit Judge. In this appeal from two consoli- dated cases, we consider for a second time the legality of 2 Nos. 18-2885 & 19-3290

conditions imposed by the Attorney General on the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (“Byrne JAG”). See 34 U.S.C. § 10151 et seq. (formerly 42 U.S.C. § 3750). Previously, the district court granted a preliminary injunction as to two conditions—known as the notice and access condi- tions—imposed by the Attorney General on the FY 2017 Byrne JAG grant applicants. We upheld the preliminary in- junction and its nationwide scope in City of Chicago v. Sessions, 888 F.3d 272 (7th Cir. 2018) (“Chicago I”). The Attorney General then took the rare step of seeking en banc review limited to only the nationwide scope of the injunction, excluding the determination that injunctive relief was proper as to the notice and access conditions, and we granted en banc review. During the pendency of that review, the district court granted a permanent injunction, and in light of that superseding relief we vacated the decision granting en banc review. City of Chicago v. Sessions, No. 17-2991, 2018 WL 4268814, at *2 (7th Cir. Aug. 10, 2018). The district court again determined that the notice and access conditions imposed by the Attorney General were unlawful and unconstitutional, but also determined that a third condition – the compliance condition – was unconstitutional as well. City of Chicago v. Sessions, 321 F. Supp. 3d 855 (N.D. Ill. 2018). The court extended the injunction to apply to all FY 2017 grant recipients program-wide, but in light of our prior grant of en banc review regarding the scope of the injunction, stayed the injunction to the extent that it applied beyond the City of Chicago. The Attorney General appealed that determination, and while it was pending in this court, the district court granted a permanent injunction in a second case brought by the City of Nos. 18-2885 & 19-3290 3

Chicago, this time challenging the Attorney General’s impo- sition of conditions on the FY 2018 Byrne JAG grant. City of Chicago v. Barr, 405 F. Supp. 3d 748 (N.D. Ill. 2019). Those con- ditions included the same notice, access, and compliance con- ditions that the district court enjoined as to the FY 2017 grant, as well as some new conditions. The district court enjoined the imposition of all of the challenged conditions as to the FY 2018 Byrne JAG grant and all future years, and once more stayed the injunction as to grantees other than the City of Chi- cago. Id. at 770. The Attorney General again appealed to this court, and we consolidated the two cases for the purposes of the appeal. The stakes in this case are high. Chicago, like many local governments, has determined that: (1) effective law enforce- ment requires the cooperation of its undocumented residents; (2) such cooperation cannot be accomplished if those resi- dents fear immigration consequences should they communi- cate with the police; and, therefore, (3) local law enforcement must remain independent from federal immigration enforce- ment. The Byrne JAG grant was enacted by Congress to sup- port the needs of local law enforcement to help fight crime, yet it now is being used as a hammer to further a completely different policy of the executive branch—presenting a city such as Chicago with the stark choice of forfeiting the funds or undermining its own law enforcement effectiveness by damaging that cooperative relationship with its residents. The Attorney General repeatedly expresses frustration that Chicago, or any other jurisdiction, can “simultaneously accept federal law enforcement grants, yet maintain local pol- icies that frustrate federal immigration enforcement.” Appel- lant’s Brief 1-3-20 at 1. It is a sentiment echoed by the only 4 Nos. 18-2885 & 19-3290

circuit—of the five that have considered it—to uphold the challenged conditions thus far. See State of New York v. Dept. of Justice, 951 F.3d 84, 107 (2d Cir. 2020) (“there is something dis- quieting in the idea of States and localities seeking federal funds to enforce their own laws while themselves hampering the enforcement of federal laws, or worse, violating those laws.”) But states do not forfeit all autonomy over their own police power merely by accepting federal grants. And the At- torney General’s perception of the urgency of immigration enforcement does not corral for the executive branch the pow- ers entrusted to the legislative branch. The executive branch has significant powers over immigration matters; the power of the purse is not one of them. This tendency to overlook the formalities of the separation of powers to address the issue- of-the-day has been seen many times by the courts, and it is no more persuasive now than it was in those cases. As the Su- preme Court has stated, repeatedly: Much of the Constitution is concerned with set- ting forth the form of our government, and the courts have traditionally invalidated measures deviating from that form. The result may ap- pear ‘formalistic’ in a given case to partisans of the measure at issue, because such measures are typically the product of the era’s perceived ne- cessity. But the Constitution protects us from our own best intentions: It divides power among sovereigns and among branches of gov- ernment precisely so that we may resist the temptation to concentrate power in one location as an expedient solution to the crisis of the day. Nos. 18-2885 & 19-3290 5

Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898, 933 (1997), quoting New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144, 187 (1992). We conclude again today, as we did when presented with the preliminary injunction, that the Attorney General cannot pursue the policy objectives of the executive branch through the power of the purse or the arm of local law enforcement; that is not within its delegation. It is the prerogative of the legislative branch and the local governments, and the Attor- ney General’s assertion that Congress itself provided that au- thority in the language of the statutes cannot withstand scru- tiny. I. Facts and District Court Rulings In Chicago I, we discussed at length the Byrne JAG pro- gram and Chicago’s Welcoming Ordinance, as well as their respective purposes. See Chicago I, 888 F.3d at 276–82. In short, the Byrne JAG grants are awarded annually to address the needs of state and local law enforcement. They are the pri- mary source of federal criminal justice enforcement funding for state and local governments.

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