NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday that New York and other cities are suing the Trump administration for moving to withhold funds from what it calls “anarchist jurisdictions.”
“What we’ve seen from President Trump, threatening funding for New York City and other cities—it's morally wrong, it's legally unacceptable, it's unconstitutional, and we’re going to fight it,” de Blasio said at his daily briefing.
The mayor, who threatened to sue weeks ago, said New York is filing suit against the administration in coordination with its sister cities.
Jim Johnson, the city’s corporation counsel, said the lawsuit would be filed in Seattle on Thursday afternoon.
“In a couple of hours in Seattle, we will file a complaint that is pushing back and seeks a court’s judgment on the Trump administration’s decisions to withhold funding from cities that they have, without cause and without law, determined to be ‘anarchist cities,’” Johnson said.
He said the lawsuit was being filed now because the administration has moved to withhold the money, which could potentially lead to the city losing more than $12 billion in funds.
“We’re bringing this action because they have taken concrete steps. They have actually taken this ‘anarchist’ designation and started to include it in applications for federal grants. We’re not going to wait for them to include it in more. We’re moving now,” Johnson said.
He said Congress ultimately makes decisions about funding and that the administration was “stepping way over their bounds” while also “moving in a way that is arbitrary and capricious.”
“There is no basis in law, there is no basis in fact for this ‘anarchist’ determination, and yet they’re going to use it to determine who does and who does not get federal funding,” Johnson said.
De Blasio slammed the administration for trying to "literally cut off funding that would help us provide health care, that would help us keep people safe" amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The mayor called it a "totally political action that would actually undermine the lives of New Yorkers just when they need help the most."
“We are not going to let the rights of New York City be trampled," de Blasio said. "Our court system, time and time again, has shown it actually believes in the U.S. Constitution, and we are confident of victory in this case.”