Free Republic

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has jurisdiction over Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Idaho U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, both Republicans, say this is too much territory and the court is overloaded with cases. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the largest in the nation, covering 20 percent of its population, according to Crapo. It accounts for nearly a third of all pending federal appeals and takes an average of 13 months to decide a case, which is almost five months...

A San Francisco-based federal appeals court ordered a judge Friday to reconsider her ruling against President Trump’s decision to ban transgender people from the military. In a unanimous, unsigned order, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals told a federal district judge in the state of Washington to take into account executive privileges in reweighing her decision. The U.S. Supreme Court put a hold on the judge’s nationwide injunction in January, allowing the ban to take effect while the government appealed to the 9th Circuit. Friday’s decision continued that hold. Gay rights lawyers who brought the...

A veteran jurist on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has informed President Donald Trump that he plans to take senior status, potentially opening up another seat on the court for the president to fill. Ninth Circuit Judge Carlos Bea, 85, informed the president via letter that he intends to take senior status “upon the nomination, confirmation and appointment of his successor,” according to a statement from a court spokesperson. Although Bea intends to remain active on the court, the move would open up a spot on the court’s 29-seat bench of active judges. The court now...

Judge Carlos Bea, a Bush appointee, will take senior status on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, though a date has not been set. The opening will give Mr. Trump his ninth slot to fill on the court — six of his picks are already sitting. Some conservatives say that seat should be earmarked for Patrick Bumatay, an openly gay Filipino man whom Mr. Trump had eyed for the 9th Circuit before, but ended up nominating him for a district judgeship instead as part of a deal with California’s two Democratic senators. “Patrick Bumatay is a former colleague and...

The Senate confirmed another of President Trump’s picks to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, the sixth seat he’s filled on the famously liberal appeals court. Daniel Collins cleared the Senate by a party line vote, 53 to 46. He is filling a seat claimed by California, and both that state’s senators objected, saying Mr. Trump ignored their wishes in nominating Mr. Collins. “Collins has a history of undermining civil and reproductive rights, even working to restrict access to birth control. California deserves better,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said...

With the confirmation of Kenneth Kiyul Lee to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday, President Trump is on track to flip the notoriously liberal court to Republican by 2020. According to National Review's Ed Whelan, Lee will be filling a seat that was held for decades by "arch-activist Stephen Reinhardt." And there's nothing but good news for Republicans on the horizon, Whelan says: Up soon for a floor vote—next week, I hope—should be Ninth Circuit nominee Daniel P. Collins. [Update (3 p.m.): Cloture has been filed on the Collins nomination, so it should be voted on next week.] Collins...

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed a controversial nominee to the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals over the objections of both home-state senators. Senators voted 52-45 on Kenneth Lee's nomination to the influential appeals court, giving President Trump his 40th circuit judge since taking office. Lee's confirmation came despite neither Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, nor Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a 2020 presidential contender, returning a blue slip on his nomination. The blue-slip rule — a precedent upheld by Senate tradition — has historically allowed a home-state senator to stop a lower-court nominee...

Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio lost his bid at the Supreme Court on Monday challenging a lower court’s appointment of a special prosecutor in his criminal case. Arpaio earned a national reputation for harsh conditions in the Arizona prisons he ran for a quarter century, before losing his 2016 reelection bid. Arpaio was found in criminal contempt of court in 2017 for not following a judge’s orders to stop traffic patrols that targeted illegal immigrants. President Trump then pardoned the former Maricopa County sheriff. Arpaio, 86, is now attempting to vacate his conviction. At issue in the Supreme Court...

The Honorable Roger T. Benitez issued a stay on his own ruling to protect the hundreds of thousands of people who imported magazines into California while his ruling stood. He did that as a preemptive strike against the Ninth Circuit issuing a stay without the protection for those who had purchased magazines while it was in effect. He had a choice, issue the stay under his conditions, or have the Ninth Circuit issue the stay under their conditions. He chose wisely.The Summary Judgment ruling on Duncan v. Becerra was made on on 29 March, 2019. At that point it...

A federal court upheld its previous ruling that cities cannot criminalize homeless people for sleeping outdoors if they have no adequate alternatives. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, rejected a petition Monday for a rehearing from the city of Boise, Idaho, in the case of Martin v. Boise. The court essentially maintained its September 2018 ruling that prosecuting or otherwise punishing homeless people for sleeping on the street if they have nowhere else to go qualifies as “cruel and unusual punishment” and is unconstitutional. The September ruling applied to all cities in the 9th Circuit’s...

1 of 3 A girl from the Mexican state of Guerrero passes rows of tents as her family waits at a shelter of mostly Mexican and Central American migrants to begin the process of applying for asylum Friday, April 12, 2019, in Tijuana, Mexico. The Trump administration is asking an appeals court to let it continue returning asylum seekers to Mexico hours before a U.S. judge's order was set to go into effect Friday afternoon reversing the unprecedented change to the U.S. asylum process. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Latest on a court ruling that would have...

A federal district court judge in the 9th Circuit on Monday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration's new policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico as they wait for an immigration court to hear their cases, but the order won't immediately go into effect.

RUSH: Hey. Here I am back at it, folks, and great to be back here with you on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, Rush Limbaugh here. The telephone number, as always, if you want to appear, 800-282-2882. And the email address, ElRushbo@eibnet.us. All right. So Kirstjen Nielsen is out. You know, folks, my impression of her was that she was loyal and that she was tough and that she was out there begging for support. And so I was one, I don’t know of how many, that was surprised when I found out she was leaving. Do we know yet...

A federal judge on Friday ordered the federal government to either quickly bring asylum seekers to a judge to argue for bail or else release the migrants outright, in a ruling that deals another blow to President Trump’s attempts to crack down on the border crisis. Judge Marsha J. Pechman, a Clinton appointee to the bench, said the government cannot hold the asylum-seekers in question for longer than seven days without giving them a chance at a bond hearing. And she ordered that the burden of proof will be on Homeland Security to make the case for why the migrants,...

The Senate Judiciary Committee cleared two nominees Thursday for seats on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ignoring objections from California’s two Democratic senators who complained they didn’t get a say in who President Trump picked. Daniel P. Collins and Kenneth Kiyul Lee were both approved on party-line 12-10 votes. Democrats said the two men were too conservative to earn seats on the West Coast’s most important court, but their complaints were even broader, accusing Republicans of further upending the “blue slip” tradition that, at some points in the past, has allowed home-state senators to veto judicial nominees. “We...

For the first time in more than three decades, Republican-appointed judges will soon occupy nearly half the seats on the left-leaning 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- dealing a setback to progressive legal advocates who have long seen the court as a safe bet for favorable rulings. The radical transformation of the San Francisco-based court is largely the result of President Trump's aggressive push to nominate conservative judges and bypass traditional consultations with Senate Democrats -- a practice that has led to repeated howls of protest from California's two Democratic senators, Kamala Harris and Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein....

For the first time in more than three decades, Republican-appointed judges will soon occupy nearly half the seats on the left-leaning 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- dealing a setback to progressive legal advocates who have long seen the court as a safe bet for favorable rulings. The radical transformation of the San Francisco-based court is largely the result of President Trump's aggressive push to nominate conservative judges and bypass traditional consultations with Senate Democrats -- a practice that has led to repeated howls of protest from California's two Democratic senators, Kamala Harris and Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein....

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal to dismiss Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit against David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress. Ad Row 2 The decision means Planned Parenthood may continue its legal action against Daleiden and his undercover investigative group, which exposed the abortion chain’s aborted baby body parts trade. The abortion group has accused Daleiden of fraud and invasion of privacy, among other things, according to Reuters. The Washington Examiner reports more: The Center for Medical Progress argued that the Planned Parenthood lawsuits interfered with the organization’s right to free speech and that it violated...

The Senate is poised this week to consider two more conservative nominees selected by President Trump to sit on the left-leaning 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- and the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee isn't happy about it. That's because the nominees, Ken Lee and Dan Collins, were picked without any input from either Dianne Feinstein or Kamala Harris, California's two Democrat senators. Traditionally, the White House seeks to obtain a so-called "blue slip," or approval, from a judicial nominee's two home-state senators before pressing on with their nominations. But the Trump administration, which has successfully nominated several conservative...

Another setback has been delivered to the parents of Kate Steinle as they continue to seek justice over the murder of their child. For some time now, the Steinle family has been pursuing a wrongful death suit against the city of San Francisco and its former sheriff for failing to inform immigration officials when the killer was released from prison. A district court rejected the claim in 2017 and the plaintiffs appealed. Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal. (Washington Examiner) The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district courtÂ’s dismissal of the familyÂ’s suit on Monday, according...