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In a 6-3 ruling late last month, Justice Amy Coney Barrett minced no words when it came to so-called “universal injunctions,” lower-court rulings that extended far beyond that court’s jurisdiction. “It is unnecessary to consider whether Congress has constrained the Judiciary; what matters is how the Judiciary may constrain the Executive,” Barrett wrote in the decision. “That goes for judges, too,” Barrett added. “When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.” That decision, by the way, did not decide the merits of the case in...

San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Wednesday accused the homeless coalition of holding the city "hostage for decades."London made those comments while joining a crowd of more than 200 people who had gathered outside the federal courthouse to urge the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to cancel a federal judge’s order banning the city from clearing tent encampments until there are more shelter beds than homeless individuals."The homeless coalition has held San Francisco hostage for decades. It is time for their reign to end," Breed said, noting that the city has spent billions of dollars to help homeless people.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit tossed a Berkeley, California, ban on gas stoves on Monday, saying that the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act preempted state and local authorities in regulating natural gas. The Courthouse News Service reported: The three-judge panel’s ruling reverses a federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit by the California Restaurant Association claiming the Energy Policy and Conservation Act preempts the San Francisco Bay Area city’s ban. The group said the ordinance would affect chefs’ ability to prepare food the way they are typically trained — using natural gas stoves.

The Senate confirmed President Trump’s ninth judicial nominee to the liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, elevating Patrick Bumatay, an openly gay Filipino man, to the federal bench over objections from his liberal home-state senators. Mr. Bumatay, who has worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, cleared the Senate by a 53-40 party-line vote. He did not have support from California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala D. Harris, who said the White House never consulted with them about the nominee. “Patrick Bumatay lacks the knowledge and experience necessary for the 9th Circuit....

A San Diego federal prosecutor was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday to a seat on the influential 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a 53-40 vote, Patrick Bumatay became the 49th circuit appointee to be confirmed under the Trump administration, part of a steady drive by Republicans to remake the federal bench with conservative jurists. It is an especially sweet victory for the administration given the 9th Circuit’s liberal lean, which has made it a prime spot for the president’s foes to challenge his policies. President Donald Trump has often complained about being treated unfairly by the nation’s largest...

WASHINGTON (CN) – President Donald Trump announced six new judicial nominees on Friday, including two to seats on the once reliably liberal Ninth Circuit and four to federal courts in California. One of the nominees to the Ninth Circuit will be familiar to senators, as Trump has now three times chosen Patrick Bumatay for a federal judgeship. Trump first chose Bumatay, a prosecutor in the Southern District of California, for a seat on the Ninth Circuit in 2018, but the Senate never took action on the nomination. Trump tapped him for a judgeship again earlier this year, this time for...

Patrick Bumatay is the second openly gay person to be nominated by Trump to be a federal judge. President Donald Trump recently announced another wave of judicial nominees, and among them is an openly gay conservative, Patrick Bumatay. Trump nominated Bumatay to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, the nation’s largest federal appeals court. It hears cases from nine Western states and has 29 judges; there are currently six vacancies. Bumatay is an assistant U.S. attorney in California handling various criminal issues, including opioid abuse and transnational organized crime, according to...

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...