Trump's sanctuary city threat rests in the hands of Obama-appointed judge

This time last year, U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick was handing down an opinion on whether an endangered monkey could claim copyright over his own selfie.

Times have certainly changed for the former Justice Department attorney.

Orrick's courtroom could soon be the source of another devastating blow to the Trump administration's agenda if he grants a request this week for a preliminary injunction against the president's Jan. 25 executive order on so-called sanctuary cities.

A hearing on the request from the city of San Francisco is set to take place April 5 and there's no telling where the Obama appointee falls on the issue, despite having spent two years supervising the Justice Department's Office of Immigration Litigation.

"Honestly, I have seen Judge Orrick rule both in favor of, and against the DOJ in different cases and so there is no way to know how he would rule for the government this time around," said Leon Fresco, Orrick's successor at the Justice Department and the lawyer who likely would have defended Trump's travel ban before a three-judge panel last month had he not left the agency in January.