San Francisco has filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's executive order directing the US government to withhold money from cities that have adopted sanctuary policies toward undocumented immigrants.
The lawsuit, filed by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, marks the first court challenge over the sanctuary order filed by one of the targeted cities.
The lawsuit alleges that the executive order violates the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution, which states that powers not granted to the federal government should fall to the states.
"In blatant disregard of the law, President of the United States seeks to coerce local authorities into abandoning what are known as 'Sanctuary City' laws and policies," said the lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court.
Earlier, Massachusetts joined a legal effort to block Mr Trump's order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, which the state's attorney general has said is unconstitutional.
Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, said her office was joining the lawsuit filed in federal court on Friday challenging the ban and also filing its own lawsuit seeking to have the ban struck down.
Over the weekend, a federal judge in Boston, home to Logan International Airport, blocked Mr Trump's order from being enforced for seven days.
Mr Trump fired the acting US attorney general after she ruled that the Justice Department could not legally defend his immigration order, including a ban on refugees.
Mr Trump replaced Sally Yates late last night after she said that she did not believe his order banning refugees and immigrants was lawful.
Ms Yates was appointed under Barack Obama's administration and had stayed on as Acting Attorney General pending the confirmation in the Senate of President Trump's nominee, Senator Jeff Sessions.
While the Office of Legal Counsel had already reviewed Mr Trump's immigration order to ensure that it was properly drafted, Ms Yates' examination of it was deeper, taking account of statements made about it by the Trump administration and supporters.
Last night Ms Yates said that "at present" she was not convinced that defending Mr Trump's Executive Order was "consistent" with her responsibility to seek justice and stand for what is right.
She said she was not convinced that the order was lawful and so ordered the Department of Justice not to defend it in the multiple legal actions already filed in several states.
Within hours the White House confirmed that President Trump had relieved Ms Yates of her duties, in a statement saying she was "weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration".
She has been replaced by the Attorney for Virginia Dana Boente.
During Ms Yates' confirmation hearing before the Senate after being nominated by Mr Obama, Mr Sessions, then a Senator, asked her if the attorney general or deputy attorney general should say no if the president wanted to do something unlawful.
He said: "You have to watch out because people will be asking you to do things you just need to say ‘no’ about. Do you think the attorney general has a responsibility to say no to the president if he asks for something that’s improper?
"A lot of people have defended the Lynch nomination for example by saying 'Well, he appoints somebody who's going to execute his views, what’s wrong with that?' But if the views the president wants to execute are unlawful, should the attorney general or the deputy attorney general say no?"
Ms Yates responded: "Senator I believe that the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has an obligation to follow the law and the constitution and to give their independent legal advice to the president."
Mr Trump has claimed that Democrats are holding up the confirmation of Mr Sessions as attorney general for purely political reasons.
The Democrats are delaying my cabinet picks for purely political reasons. They have nothing going but to obstruct. Now have an Obama A.G.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2017
When will the Democrats give us our Attorney General and rest of Cabinet! They should be ashamed of themselves! No wonder D.C. doesn't work!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2017
Barely an hour after firing Ms Yates, Mr Trump also replaced the acting head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another holdover from the Obama administration, as he battled the mounting fallout over his controversial immigration orders.
No reason was given for the decision to replace Daniel Ragsdale.
Mr Ragsdale's replacement, Thomas Homan, will help "ensure that we enforce our immigration laws in the interior of the United States consistent with the national interest," Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said in a statement.
The president is set to name his nominee to fill a vacant seat in the US Supreme Court tonight.
