SAN FRANCISCO — U.S. District Judge William Orrick III blocked the Trump administration Tuesday from enforcing its threat to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities. The nationwide injunction was a win for lawyers for Santa Clara County and their pro bono counsel at Keker Van Nest & Peters, as well as the San Francisco city attorney’s office.
San Francisco filed the first lawsuit Jan. 31 challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting about 300 communities that decline to cooperate with federal immigration officials in aiding deportation. Santa Clara County and Keker followed suit shortly thereafter, upping the ante by asking for the nationwide injunction. Keker’s Cody Harris, who worked on the case alongside partners John Keker and Daniel Purcell and associates Nicholas Goldberg and Edward Bayley, spoke with The Recorder shortly after Orrick’s decision was handed down Tuesday to discuss the firm’s work so far and what’s ahead in the underlying case.
