Free Republic

President Donald Trump has called courts unfair and political and repeatedly assailed the 9th Circuit, the U.S. court system's westernmost division, where some of his key immigration policies have stalled. But is there any evidence politics plays a role in judicial opinions? An Associated Press review suggests it might. The AP looked at opinions by nearly 40 federal district court and appellate judges about Trump's ban on travelers from mostly Muslim countries. It found only one judge nominated by a Democratic president has supported Trump's authority to keep out all travelers or deport those who arrived just as the first...

The most liberal appeals court in America could soon be getting a Republican makeover if President Trump and Senate GOP leaders are able to fill seven open seats with conservative picks. Standing in their way is a wall of Democrats hellbent on protecting the long-standing leftward lean of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The stakes are sky high because of the size, caseload and clout of the court. If Trump is successful in getting young, ideologically conservative nominees through the confirmation process, he could significantly alter the court’s DNA for decades to come. “Adding seven conservatives to the court...

Dissenting judge on panel worries ruling could foster ‘inappropriate… political attacks’ on presidencyA federal appeals court said this week it will appoint a lawyer to argue that former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s contempt of court conviction should remain on his record despite President Trump’s pardon. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that since the federal Justice Department is supporting both the pardon and Mr. Arpaio’s request to have his conviction stricken, someone else needs to argue the other side. Mr. Arpaio argues that the pardon came before he had a chance to appeal his conviction, and even before...

A federal judge in Washington State has declared that all civic groups nationwide must accept people of the other sex into their single-sex spaces and activities, or else be stigmatized and sued by the federal government. In legal jargon, Judge Marsha Pechman declared in a lawsuit against the Pentagon’s “transgender” policy that the federal government must use its powers to champion people who want to live as members of the sex, either inside the military or outside, just as it must use federal powers to suppress racism: Today, the Court concludes that transgender people constitute a suspect class. Transgender people...

WASHINGTON — In the spring of 2014, a friend tried to nudge Judge Stephen Reinhardt, then an 83-year-old liberal stalwart on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, into stepping aside from full-time duties so President Barack Obama could nominate a successor. The friend, Erwin Chemerinsky, now the dean at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, said he had gently suggested to Judge Reinhardt that he and another longtime liberal figure on the San Francisco-based court make way while Democrats still had the power to assure that jurists with a similar philosophy would take their...

Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the liberal face of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, died Thursday afternoon, a court spokesman said. He was 87.

Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has died, a court spokesperson confirmed. He was 87. A liberal champion, Reinhardt was appointed to the bench by President Carter in 1980. He authored key liberal court opinions on hot-button topics ranging from abortion and marriage equality to assisted suicide and immigration. At the same time, the opinions made him a target of criticism from conservative corners — and of regular reversal from the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a blow to the Trump administration by refusing to hear the government's challenge to a lower court ruling that has temporarily blocked the administration from winding down the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Department of Justice’s request was rare in that it asked the Supreme Court to jump ahead of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in reviewing the case. The court typically will only bypass an appellate court when there’s an emergency involving foreign affairs, a serious separation of powers concerns or when it has already agreed to hear...

In each of the past few years, I have done an end-of-the-year summary on jihad activity and Islamization in the United States, so that people might better understand the overarching progress of the jihad in the U.S., and connect the dots. After years of shouting into the wilderness, the message hit critical mass in November 2016, and Donald Trump, to the absolute shock of the totalitarian left elite, was elected President of the United States. President Trump’s initiatives to stem jihad and sharia in America have been met with fierce resistance from the jihad-aligned left. Even just last Friday, the...

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that part of President Trump's third attempt at a travel ban should be blocked. The ruling, however, will not take effect pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The White House's third attempt at the travel ban targeted foreigners from six Muslim-majority countries, Venezuela, and North Korea. Rather than take apart the entire ban, however, three members of the 9th Circuit ruled that only the prohibitions on "foreign nationals who have a bona fide relationship" within the United States should be stopped. The dispute will not return to the Supreme Court...

Two attorneys are hopeful that the most liberal appellate court in the nation will become conservative. Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals announced his retirement Monday after women alleged he subjected them to inappropriate sexual conduct or comments. "Good riddance that this judge is gone – is retiring for this sexual harassment allegation," Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver commented on Kozinski’s retirement. "This is a very serious situation, and I think it's about time to get rid of a lot more judges – not just for this, but for their judicial activism." According to...

Alex Kozinski, the powerful judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit who was facing a judicial investigation over allegations that he subjected 15 women to inappropriate sexual behavior, announced Monday that he would retire effective immediately. In a statement provided by his lawyer, Kozinski apologized, saying that he “had a broad sense of humor and a candid way of speaking to both male and female law clerks alike,” and that “in doing so, I may not have been mindful enough of the special challenges and pressures that women face in the workplace.” “It grieves me to...

The chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday that he has opened a misconduct inquiry into a judge accused of inappropriate sexual conduct and comments by six women. Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas issued the order based on allegations against Judge Alex Kozinski in a Dec. 8 Washington Post article. The women were clerks and others at the largest federal appeals court in the country. Kozinski is a prominent judge, serving as chief judge of the 9th Circuit from 2007 to 2014. He is known for his irreverent opinions and his clerks often...

A former clerk for Judge Alex Kozinski said the powerful and well-known jurist, who for many years served as chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, called her into his office several times and pulled up pornography on his computer, asking if she thought it was photoshopped or if it aroused her sexually. Heidi Bond, who clerked for Kozinski from 2006 to 2007, said the porn was not related to any case. One set of images she remembered was of college-age students at a party where “some people were inexplicably naked while everyone else was...

The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to fully enforce a ban on travel to the United States by residents of six mostly Muslim countries. The justices, with two dissenting votes, said Monday that the policy can take full effect even as legal challenges against it make their way through the courts. The action suggests the high court could uphold the latest version of the ban that Trump announced in September. The ban applies to travelers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Lower courts had said people from those nations with a claim of a “bona fide”...

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Harry Pregerson, a Los Angeles-based jurist who embraced the underdog and let his conscience inform his rulings, has died. He was 94. (snip) Pregerson, born in Los Angeles on October 13, 1923, was one of the most liberal federal appeals court judges in the nation. (snip) Pregerson, born in Los Angeles on October 13, 1923, was one of the most liberal federal appeals court judges in the nation.

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the second and final challenge to President Donald Trump’s executive order on refugees and migrants Tuesday, concluding that the expiration of a 120-day ban on refugee resettlement ended the controversy. Snip The order is a victory for the administration, that asked the justices to dismiss the cases in September. The orders also wipe out adverse lower court rulings limiting the president’s authority.

A federal appeals court in Seattle ruled Tuesday that police can only use force “proportional” to the threat they face, seriously damaging the Seattle Police Department’s ability to use firearms. The ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the use of force reforms put in place by federal mandates under the Obama administration that required police to use only “objectively reasonable force, proportional to the threat or urgency of the situation,” the Associated Press reports. The unanimous ruling strikes down a lawsuit filed by a group of more than 120 Seattle officers in 2014 who claimed that the...

Federal Judge Sallie Kim did not heed a warning given by an U.S. Assistant Attorney that Thomas Littlecloud was a danger to the lives of police officer, and she released him anyway. Shortly afterwards, two California Highway Patrol officers were shot and one Sacramento deputy was murdered by Littlecloud.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday rejected the Trump administration's limited view of who is allowed into the country under its revised travel ban. A three-judge panel decided that grandparents, cousins and similarly close extended family relationships of people in the U.S. shouldn't be prevented from coming to the country. The court also said refugees already accepted by a resettlement agency shouldn't be banned. The appeals court decision upholds a decision from a district court judge in Hawaii, who said the administration's view was too narrow. The decision impacts the revised travel ban, which temporarily suspends new...