Free Republic

A federal appeals court in California on Thursday ruled to lift a ban on President Donald Trump’s proclamation that blocks immigrants from entering the United States if they lack health insurance or the means to pay for hospital bills. In a Dec. 31 opinion (pdf), the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said that Trump acted within his authority when, in October 2019, he signed the Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Will Financially Burden the United States Healthcare System. The ruling reverses a federal court decision to block the implementation of the president’s...

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled that President Trump’s use of emergency powers to allocate millions of dollars in funding for the construction of a southern border wall was illegal, the latest blow to the Trump administration’s effort to limit immigration. In the 2-1 decision, the court upheld a December 2019 district court summary judgment in favor of a request from the advocacy groups the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition against Defense Secretary Mark Esper, acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and “all persons acting under their direction ... from using military construction funds...

A federal appeals court decided 2-1 Friday that the Trump administration violated the law when it used military funds to build a wall on the Mexican border. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the power of the purse belongs to Congress, and the administration lacked constitutional authority to transfer the military money. Two Democratic appointees were in the majority. A Trump appointee dissented.

A federal appeals court has backed California Gov. Gavin Newsom's stay-at-home order banning in-church services to blunt the spread of coronavirus, rejecting an argument from clerics that the governor is treading on their First Amendment right to free exercise of their religious beliefs.

California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris lashed out at the White House after President Trump, under pressure from conservative activists, re-nominated two conservative California judges to the Ninth Circuit federal appeals court over their opposition. “We are deeply disappointed that the White House has chosen to re-nominate Daniel Collins and Kenneth Lee to the Ninth Circuit,” Feinstein and Harris said in a joint statement late Wednesday. “We made clear our opposition to these individuals and told the White House we wanted to work together to come to consensus on a new package of nominees.”

For the second time in as many weeks, the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate has confirmed a California-based nominee to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over the objections of the state’s two Democratic senators. The Senate voted 53-46 on Tuesday to approve the nomination of Daniel Collins, a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris withheld the so-called blue slips for Collins that home-state senators traditionally return to the Senate Judiciary to indicate their sign off on a nominee for a federal judicial seat based...

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...

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee blasted the White House Thursday for picking nominees for the West Coast’s appeals court without consulting her, and saying one of the three doesn’t have any judicial experience. President Trump named a new slate of court picks Wednesday, including three judges to sit on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. But Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California objected, saying she had tried to consult with the White House but was rebuffed. She said she would withhold her blue slip, in a signal that she doesn’t acquiesce to the picks. Blue slips are a...

After months of negotiations and delays, the White House is moving to fill California’s three vacancies on the influential 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — over the strenuous objections of the state’s two Democratic senators. President Trump’s nominees for the appeals court — litigators Daniel Collins and Kenneth Lee and Assistant United States Attorney Patrick Bumatay — are all based in Southern California, are prominent members of the conservative Federalist Society, and have worked for Republican administrations. None of the three were approved by Feinstein or Harris via a process known as a “blue slip,” the senators’ offices confirmed...

SNIPPET: "Search at Grundy County plant called part of ongoing probe" SNIPPET: "But a source said the owner of the plant, which processes lamb and goat, was taken into custody at his home in Chicago. Documents and records were taken from the plant and from a Chicago travel agency on West Devon Avenue, also owned by the same person, the source said."