In pressing ahead, Orrick ruled, the administration, among other things, usurped Congress’s spending power.

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The administration’s two-year losing battle, although a rallying cry for some supporters of President Trump, has raised questions about whether the Justice Department, the nation’s top law enforcement agency, is effectively resisting the courts.

The government’s behavior “flies in the face of a body of law,” said Christopher Lasch, a law professor at the University of Denver who has studied and written about the cases. “These are real, clear-cut legal propositions that they are acting in the face of,” he said, referring to the court decisions.

“The way the administration sees it is a win-win. They are constantly demonstrating to their adherents that they are attacking sanctuary cities,” he said. And because the jurisdictions they’re “going after are not likely to be harboring mass quantities of Trump voters, the costs of losing in court are minimal.”

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The Justice Department had no comment Tuesday.

Monday’s case was brought by the city and county of San Francisco and the state of California, which together stood to lose more than $30 million in grants.

The decision was no surprise. Since Trump took office, he and the Justice Department have been targeting state and local governments that decline to help Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) detect and detain immigrants who come in contact with law enforcement officials.

Trump and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions have claimed, contrary to evidence, that these localities are becoming hotbeds of crime because of undocumented immigrants.

States, counties and cities nationwide have resisted in court, arguing that doing what the administration demands would undermine the trust between immigrant populations and local law enforcement authorities, making it more difficult for police to do their jobs.

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They also have successfully argued that the constitutional principles of federalism bar the federal government from telling states what legislation they must pass or not pass, and from making local police enforce immigration laws.

What is unusual is that having lost every one of these battles — in federal district and appeals courts in California, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania — the administration has not only continued to press its demands but added new immigration-related conditions to 2018 law enforcement grants.

The result has been more court rulings against the government by judges such as Orrick, who already had struck down an earlier sanctuary cities grant restriction.