Robert M. Wilkinson, Acting Attorney General, et al. v. City and County of San Francisco, California, et al.

The Department of Justice administers the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) program, which provides millions of dollars in financial assistance to law enforcement in the form of grant awards to States and local governments nationwide. For Fiscal Year 2017, the Department announced two new special conditions designed to ensure that, in their programs receiving such federal assistance, grantees provide a basic level of cooperation with federal authorities with respect to aliens held in state or local criminal custody. The “notice condition” requires grantees to have a policy designed to ensure that facilities provide, upon a request by the Department of Homeland Security, advance notice of the scheduled release date and time for a particular alien. The “access condition” requires grantees to have a policy to afford federal authorities access to the grantee’s facilities to meet with an alien. In addition, the Department of Justice imposed the “certification condition,” requiring grantees to comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373—which generally bars state and local governments from restricting the sharing of “information regarding the citizenship or immigration status * * * of any individual” with federal immigration authorities, ibid.—and to certify such compliance. The questions presented are as follows:

1. Whether the Department has statutory authority to impose the notice and access conditions on grantees that accept Byrne JAG awards.

2. Whether the Department may withhold Byrne JAG funds from respondents for noncompliance with 8 U.S.C. 1373. (I)