If you had any doubts about President Trump taking on the leftist tendency to use the judicial system to implement their agenda, think again: on Wednesday he uttered a simple statement in which he stated his intention to break up one of the bastions of the leftist movement – the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Asked by The Washington Examiner if he has considered breaking up the 9th Circuit, where two judges have blocked two of his executive actions, Trump answered bluntly, “Absolutely, I have. 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. You see judge shopping, or what’s gone on with these people, they immediately run to the 9th Circuit. It’s got close to an 80 percent reversal period, and what’s going on in the 9th Circuit is a shame.”
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Orrick temporarily blocked Trump’s order to the Justice Department in January to put immigration-related conditions on grants for “sanctuary cities” that may not be directly related to law enforcement.
In February, a 9th Circuit panel ruled that Trump’s immigration executive order was likely unconstitutional. That prompted Trump to substitute another order, which was challenged; but the panel decision remained on the books as binding law within the 9th Circuit.
Trump told the Examiner, “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. 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.”
Steinle was gunned down by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco in 2015.
Trump continued, “Sanctuary cities have been very, very dangerous. Very, very bad. And, you know, we’ve done a great job on law enforcement, we’ve done a great job at the border. And all of our most talented people say sanctuary cities are a disaster.”
The 9th Circuit hears appeals from courts in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Guam and the Northern Mariana islands. There are 13 courts of appeals; the 9th is the largest with 29 active judgeships. It has the highest percentage of sitting judges appointed by Democratic presidents. Between 1999 to 2008, of the 9th Circuit Court rulings that were reviewed by the Supreme Court, 61% were reversed. Between 2010 to 2015, roughly 79% were reversed.
“You see judge shopping, or what’s gone on with these people, they immediately run to the 9th Circuit.”
President Trump
In March 2007, Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee that the consensus among the justices of the Supreme Court was that the 9th Circuit should be split. The 9th Circuit struck down same-sex marriage bans in California, Idaho, and Nevada. The 9th Circuit once ruled the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance was unconstitutional but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that.
In addition, the 9th Circuit is overloaded, handling 20% of the U.S. appellate cases.