Wednesday, April 26, 2017

This Will Happen


Right after Trump gets to replace the entire Supreme Court with justices of his own choosing without needing Senate approval:

President Trump said Wednesday that he has "absolutely" considered proposals that would split up the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where judges have blocked two of his executive actions.

"Absolutely, I have," Trump said of considering 9th Circuit breakup proposals during a far-ranging interview with the Washington Examiner at the White House. "There are many people that want to break up the 9th Circuit. It's outrageous."

"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 said.

His comments came one day after U.S. District Judge William Orrick temporarily blocked Trump's efforts to withhold funds from any municipality that refuses to cooperate with immigration enforcement officers. Orrick, based in San Francisco, argued that Trump had overstepped his authority in January when he directed the Justice Department to put immigration-related conditions on grants for so-called sanctuary cities that may not be directly related to law enforcement. The case, if appealed, would go before the 9th Circuit.

Other judges on the court halted two different versions of an executive action aimed at tightening vetting requirements for immigrants from Middle Eastern countries, because both actions called for a temporary suspension of some immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries.

"The language could not be any clearer. I mean, the language on the ban, it reads so easy that a reasonably good student in the first grade will fully understand it. And they don't even mention the words in their rejection on the ban," Trump said. "And the same thing with this [sanctuary city decision]. I mean, when you have people that are being enabled to commit crime. And in San Francisco, when you look at Kate Steinle being shot and here is the court, you know, right in that same general area. And when you look at a Kate Steinle, when you look at so many other things."
I quote that at length because the Washington Examiner betrays the same ignorance as the POTUS.  Judge Orrick does not, as implied, sit on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (the start of the penultimate paragraph in the quote implies as much).  Yes, that appellate court upheld the injunction against the first Muslim travel ban, and another district court held up the second version of that ban.  That version is up for hearings before the appellate panel in May.  District courts in the 9th Circuit have stopped Trump's more egregious executive orders, but so have district courts in other circuits.  The cases in the 9th Circuit have been brought by Attorneys-General, or cities, in that circuit.  They can't "forum shop."

Of course, the clear language that keeps hanging Trump up is his own.  Orrick cited it in ruling against the argument of the DOJ; the 9th Circuit cited it in their opinion that keeps sticking in Trump's craw.  But is Trump going to "break up" the 9th Circuit (does he even know what that means?)?  Sure, soon as he stands firm on the question of subsidies for Obamacare and gets the Congress to agree not to fund the government until he gets funding for his border wall; oh, and when he convinces the House to pass an ACA reform bill that he insists on, and no other.

Do I exaggerate?  Well, apparently he impressed the hell out of the Senate in that unprecedented briefing on North Korea today:





So he'll get the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals "broken up" about half-past never.  The guy couldn't be a lamer duck if he tried.
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