Another
day,
another
federal
judge
having
to
explain
to
the
Trump
administration
that
court
orders
are
not
optional
suggestions.
This
time,
the
lecture
came
from
Judge
Matthew
Kennelly
of
the
U.S.
District
Court
for
the
Northern
District
of
Illinois,
who
found
that
the
Department
of
Homeland
Security
failed
to
comply
with
a
prior
order
directing
it
to
unfreeze
migrant
support
funds
owed
to
Chicago,
Denver,
and
Pima
County,
Arizona.
Because
you
don’t
get
to
dodge
your
legal
obligations
just
because
you’d
rather
not
follow
them.
The
case
centers
on
reimbursement
requests
submitted
by
local
governments
under
federal
migrant
support
grants.
Those
requests
were
filed
before
Homeland
Security
formally
terminated
the
grants,
and
the
law
requires
agencies
to
process
reimbursements
within
a
statutory
30-day
window.
Instead
of
paying
up
or
offering
a
lawful
explanation
for
denying
the
requests,
the
administration
froze
the
funds
and
then
argued
that
it
no
longer
had
to
meet
the
reimbursement
deadline
because
the
grants
were
now
in
“closeout.”
Judge
Kennelly
was
not
impressed.
The
governing
regulation,
he
explained,
“does
not
contemplate
allowing
a
federal
agency
to
escape
its
regulatory
obligations
simply
because
it
later
terminates
a
grant.”
This
ruling
fits
neatly
into
a
growing
stack
of
judicial
orders
documenting
the
administration’s
increasingly
casual
relationship
with
the
concept
of
a
co-equal
branch
of
government.
Time
and
again,
courts
have
had
to
spell
out
what
should
be
basic
civics:
executive
agencies
don’t
get
to
ignore
deadlines,
rewrite
regulations
on
the
fly,
or
treat
judicial
oversight
as
a
nuisance
to
be
managed
rather
than
authority
to
be
respected.
Judge
Kennelly’s
order
doesn’t
do
anything
flashy.
It
doesn’t
grandstand.
It
simply
insists
that
the
government
do
what
the
law
requires.
But
in
the
current
climate,
that
insistence
itself
feels
momentous.
Kathryn
Rubino
is
a
Senior
Editor
at
Above
the
Law,
host
of
The
Jabot
podcast,
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
AtL
tipsters
are
the
best,
so
please
connect
with
her.
Feel
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@Kathryn1 or
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