Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says that the federal government is withholding money for local law enforcement because of the state's immigration policies. Dean Vikram Amar visited Illinois Public Media's The 21st on July 23rd to discuss the issue.

He speculated that the federal government is looking to force a number of lawsuits in this area, in the hopes that one of them will make it to the Supreme Court. 

When asked how the Supreme Court might rule in such a case, Amar said, "On the one hand the conservatives on the Court are very protective of states rights and they don't want states to be bound by funding conditions unless Congress clearly created them, but then as you saw in the travel ban case, there is also a strain of deference to the President when it comes to matters concerning national security and immigration."

Listen to the clip