Trump eyes bid to split up 9th Circuit court amid sanctuary city, travel ban disputes

April 27, 2017

President Trump upped his battle with the federal appeals court potentially standing in the way of his agenda, saying Wednesday he “absolutely” has considered proposals to break up the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit.

Trump made the comments in an interview with The Washington Examiner. His complaints came on the heels of the appeals court earlier this year helping block his controversial “travel ban” and a federal District Court judge in northern California on Tuesday blocking his bid to cut off sanctuary city funding.

That judge, William Orrick, is not on the 9th Circuit bench, but the case could hit that court if appealed.

Trump accused his opponents of “judge shopping,” and told the Examiner they “immediately run to the 9th Circuit.”

And he gave a nod to congressional proposals to split up the appeals court into smaller parts.

"There are many people that want to break up the 9th Circuit. It's outrageous," Trump said.

Republicans have long complained that the 9th Circuit is not only liberal-leaning but far too big – covering a sprawling amount of territory.

GOP Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona introduced legislation earlier this year to carve six states out of the court circuit and create a brand new 12th Circuit.

If they succeed, only California, Oregon, Hawaii and two island districts would remain in the 9th.

Under Flake’s bill, the new circuit would cover Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Arizona and Alaska.

Congress created the court in 1891. At the time, the area was sparsely inhabited – only 4 percent of the U.S. population lived in the area compared to today’s 20 percent.

In 1998, Congress appointed a commission to re-examine the federal appeals courts’ structure. The commission ultimately recommended against splitting the 9th Circuit.

But carving up the large circuit isn’t out of the realm of possibility. In 1929, Congress split the 8th Circuit to accommodate a population boom and increased caseloads.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, is preparing to fight the latest sanctuary city ruling.

“The Department of Justice cannot accept such a result, and as the president has made clear, we will continue to litigate this case to vindicate the rule of law,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement, citing the need to deport criminal illegal immigrants. “This is the Trump era. Progress is being made daily, and it will continue. This will be the administration that fully enforces our nation’s immigration laws.”

Orrick’s ruling to halt Trump’s order on sanctuary cities criticized the plan as too broad, saying it potentially threatens to cut off a wide range of federal grants to targeted cities.

"And if there was doubt about the scope of the order, the president and attorney general have erased it with their public comments," he wrote.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...-disputes.html

This is long over-due, and I hope he can convince Congress to do it.

I was recently viewing some You Tube videos about a case in Oregon Bundy Ranch Trial Fiasco. The US Marshals actually went after Ammond Bundy's Attorney when the verdict of innocent in Oregon was read. The attorney asked about paperwork on their release this is what happened. Watch the US Marshal fill the court room, surround him, twisted his legs and tased him. This may give you some idea how law and ORDER are taken care of on the West Coast.

Attorneys Statement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JBIZN4ndUw

CourtRoom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FKGZAuePKM

Wow!! That wouldn't have happened if they were illegal aliens or terrorists. Only US citizen rachers with a land and water dispute with the BLM. Unbelievable. "SAD!"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jean

"There are many people that want to break up the 9th Circuit. It's outrageous," Trump said.

Republicans have long complained that the 9th Circuit is not only liberal-leaning but far too big – covering a sprawling amount of territory.

GOP Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona introduced legislation earlier this year to carve six states out of the court circuit and create a brand new 12th Circuit.

If they succeed, only California, Oregon, Hawaii and two island districts would remain in the 9th.

Under Flake’s bill, the new circuit would cover Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Arizona and Alaska.

Congress created the court in 1891. At the time, the area was sparsely inhabited – only 4 percent of the U.S. population lived in the area compared to today’s 20 percent.

---

Trump is right, and I hope he succeeds in this. A liberal leaning District Court ruling over vast areas of traditionally Conservative areas is not right.

It's not right at all. They need to move California out of the 9th Circuit and put it with Arizona and some other states for better balance. Leave Seattle with Hawaii in the 9th.

Trump’s hands are tied on 9th Circuit

By Lydia Wheeler - 04/28/17 01:40 PM EDT

If President Trump is going to break up the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, he’s going to have to rely on Congress.

Trump this week said he was looking at ways to split up the California-based court or appeals, which ruled against his travel ban in February and had long troubled conservatives with its decisions.

“There are many people who want to break up the 9th Circuit,” Trump said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “It's outrageous.”

Eighteen of the court’s 25 judges have been appointed by Democrats, and it has irritated the right over the years.

Conservatives often point to the 2002 decisions in which the court said it was unconstitutional for the pledge of allegiance to include the words "under God." The Supreme Court later overturned that ruling.

“Everybody immediately runs to the 9th Circuit. And we have a big country. We have lots of other locations. But they immediately run to the 9th Circuit. Because they know that's like, semi-automatic,” Trump added this week.

Despite Trump’s tough rhetoric, there is little he can do to reshape a court that handles about a third of the nation’s appeals. It covers California and eight other states including Arizona, Alaska, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Washington and Hawaii, as well as Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

“He can jawbone,” said Carl Tobias, a professor of law at the University of Richmond School of Law. “He can sign a bill if both chambers send legislation to him to reconfigure the court, but he can’t do it unilaterally. He can’t use an executive order to do it.”

While Trump has the power to nominate judges to fill vacancies on the court, that’s about where his powers end.

There are four vacancies on the court now, but court watchers say that’s not enough to drastically shift its ideological balance.

“Given the size of 9th Circuit, in context four judges is not a lot,” said Ian Samuel, a Climenko Fellow and lecturer on law at Harvard Law School who clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski on the 9th Circuit and later Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.

That leaves the real power to shifting the 9th circuit with Congress, where Republicans have offered legislation to go after the court.

Bills in the House and Senate would break up the court and create a new 12th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Under the House bill, the new court would cover Arizona, Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Nevada. The Senate version also includes Washington.

In a radio interview Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said breaking up the court is “certainly a possibility.”

“I think that’s a topic I can easily see the [Senate] Judiciary Committee taking up, and we’ll have to see whether we have to votes to do that or not,” he said on “The Jack Riccardi Show.”

But the chances of getting such a bill through the Senate are likely zero unless the legislative filibuster is done away with.

Republicans would need eight Democrats to back legislation, something all but impossible for now.

“I don’t know if we could get a Republican bill through that says the sky is blue in the Senate because of the 60-vote rule there,” said Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who was more optimistic about the chances of legislation passing the GOP-controlled House.

Even if Congress were to get a bill to Trump, signing it might not solve conservative problems.

Many issues would still be sent to the 9th Circuit court even if a new 12 circuit court were created.

“If we stay with idea of geographically based circuits its hard to imagine dividing the circuit in a way that solves the problem the administration is having, which is that the judges of this court don’t think the administration’s actions are lawful, but those judges are still going to be there,” Samuel said.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said the legislation would essentially create another liberal court.

“It wouldn’t change the nature of decisions,” he said.

“When you really get down to it and you think about it, it’s not going to serve their purpose. The court is what it is. If you want to make the court more conservative appoint some conservative judges, which is what they’re going to do.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...on-9th-circuit