"In an act offensive to both the Constitution and common sense, President Trump has called on the Attorney General to formally identify certain American cities as 'anarchist jurisdictions' -- an oxymoronic designation without precedent in American jurisprudence -- and has activated the entire federal bureaucracy to preclude such jurisdictions from receiving federal funds."

Thus begins a complaint filed in the US District Court of Western Washington State in Seattle against the President of the United States and the federal bureaucracy. The cities of Seattle, Portland and New York have filed this suit against President Donald Trump this week.

The complaint references a memo from the President issued on September 2nd of this year, identifying the three cities as jurisdictions that permit "anarchy, violence and destruction." The memo describes the situation in these cities, as well as the disposition of the local government toward law enforcement.

It is the policy and purpose of the United States Government to protect the lives and property of all people in the United States from unlawful acts of violence and destruction. Without law and order, democracy cannot function. Americans cannot exercise their rights, including their rights to peaceful expression, assembly, and protest. Property is destroyed, and innocent citizens are injured or killed.

Unfortunately, anarchy has recently beset some of our States and cities. For the past few months, several State and local governments have contributed to the violence and destruction in their jurisdictions by failing to enforce the law, disempowering and significantly defunding their police departments, and refusing to accept offers of Federal law enforcement assistance. As a result of these State and local government policies, persistent and outrageous acts of violence and destruction have continued unabated in many of America’s cities, such as Portland, Seattle, and New York.

Section three of the memo very specifically outlines the criteria to be identified:

(b) In identifying anarchist jurisdictions, the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of OMB, shall consider, as appropriate:

(i) whether a jurisdiction forbids the police force from intervening to restore order amid widespread or sustained violence or destruction;

(ii) whether a jurisdiction has withdrawn law enforcement protection from a geographical area or structure that law enforcement officers are lawfully entitled to access but have been officially prevented from accessing or permitted to access only in exceptional circumstances, except when law enforcement officers are briefly withheld as a tactical decision intended to resolve safely and expeditiously a specific and ongoing unlawful incident posing an imminent threat to the safety of individuals or law enforcement officers;

(iii) whether a jurisdiction disempowers or defunds police departments;

(iv) whether a jurisdiction unreasonably refuses to accept offers of law enforcement assistance from the Federal Government;

At issue is the restriction of federal funds to such jurisdictions. "The Director of OMB shall issue guidance to the heads of agencies on restricting eligibility of or otherwise disfavoring, to the maximum extent permitted by law, anarchist jurisdictions in the receipt of Federal grants that the agency has sufficient lawful discretion to restrict or otherwise disfavor anarchist jurisdictions from receiving."

In a breathless summary, the complaint summarizes, "failing to anchor his decision in any provision of federal law, the Attorney General based his decision, made via a press release, on an arbitrary and capricious list of misleading and cherry-picked bullet-points about each City that in no way supports the assertion that the Cities have chosen to abandon their jurisdictions to lawlessness and violence."

Revealing the real issue, the complaint says that "The Cities rely on billions of dollars in federal funding to provide a range of vital services, including housing, public transportation, and emergency relief. The funding threat could not come at a worse time, as the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged municipal finances, draining reserves and forcing painful budget cuts. The Defendants’ express plan to defund 'anarchist jurisdictions,' if permitted, would be devastating to the Cities."


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-10-24 17:53:42

Last Update: 2020-10-24 19:16:57