Immigration · federal leverage
Immigration leverage fight: DOJ drops appeal on tying transportation funds to enforcement cooperation
Receipts: Court ruling + DOJ’s procedural choice to drop the appeal.
Timeline
What happened
Reuters reports the Justice Department dropped its appeal of a federal judge’s order that blocked a plan to tie transportation funding to state cooperation with immigration enforcement.
Why this matters
Conditioning unrelated federal funds is a classic pressure tactic: it can shift policy choices from elected state legislatures to federal agencies. The receipts are the court’s reasoning (authority + constitutionality) and the DOJ’s decision to stop pressing the appeal.
What to watch next
Whether the administration tries a narrower version of the condition, or uses a different funding stream. If it does, your receipts structure is the same: statutory authority, agency guidance, state response, and court outcomes.