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Trump ‘Absolutely’ Considered Breaking Up 9th Circuit Court


President Donald Trump, still chafing over rulings blocking his travel ban early this year, says he’s considered breaking up the West Coast-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Asked during a White House interview by the Washington Examiner if he’d thought about proposals to break up the court, Trump replied, “Absolutely, I have.” He added that “there are many people that want to break up the 9th Circuit. It’s outrageous.”

The comments echoed his Twitter criticism of the court Wednesday morning.

Trump called U.S. District Judge William Orrick’s preliminary injunction against his order stripping money from sanctuary cities “ridiculous” on Twitter. He said that he planned to take that case to the Supreme Court. But an administration appeal of the district court’s decision would go first to the 9th Circuit.

(AP)



3 Responses

  1. 1. Only the Congress can adjust the circuits. It is not within the president;s power to do so.

    2. The Ninth Circuit is much to large compared to the other circuit – since the boundaries date back to the 19th century, back when the west did not have much of a population (other than of bison, and they don’t sue people).

    3. Changing the circuit boundaries and adding a new circuit would not impact on the problem of California’s federal courts blocking federal programs. Adding more conservative judges would have that effect, and Trump’s judicial appointments will counter the court-packing of Obama (under whose influence the Senate dropped the requirement of 60 votes to approve judges). Also, they could be statute require that injunctions to block a statute nationally have to be brought in the Federal court in Washington (that’s a federal rule, not complicated to change – merely a venue requirement).

    4. Once the case gets to the Supreme Court, Trump will probably get much more favorable results. As it is, the Ninth Circuit is infamous for being overruled. Trump is too impatient.

  2. “Breaking up” the Ninth Circuit to make it more conservative would probably backfire. The circuit consists of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, the Northern Marianas and Arizona. California has a huge population, and the other states are nearly empty. The only way to break up the circuit would be to make California its own circuit, which will leave it largely liberal. The other states and territories would be another circuit with a small population, and little significant litigation would arise in that circuit.

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