Court meeting likely to irk Trump
9th Circuit to address topics like immigration, elections
SAN FRANCISCO — The nation’s largest federal court circuit has clashed repeatedly with President Donald Trump over the past six months, and the agenda for its annual meeting is not shying away from topics that have stoked the president’s ire.
Immigration, fake news and meddling in the U.S. election are among the subjects to be discussed or touched on at the four-day conference of the 9th Circuit courts in San Francisco starting Monday.
Judges in the circuit have blocked both of Trump’s bans on travelers from a group of mostly Muslim countries and halted his attempt to strip funding from so-called sanctuary cities.
Trump has fired back, referring to a judge who blocked his first travel ban as a “so-called judge” and calling the ruling that upheld the decision disgraceful. Republicans have accused the 9th Circuit appeals court of a liberal slant and renewed efforts to break it up.
The 9th Circuit’s spokesman, David Madden, acknowledged that someone could see a connection between the conference agenda and the administration, but he said there was no intention to link the two.
“We live in interesting times, and the court cannot choose which cases are brought before it,” he said.
A panel on Monday will discuss cases that set aside the convictions of men who resisted an executive order that led to the imprisonment of Japanese-americans during
World War II. The panelists include 9th Circuit appeals court Judge Mary Schroeder and retired U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, each of whom ruled in a case challenging such a conviction.
Another panel at the conference will discuss programs designed to keep people out of federal prison. Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has directed federal prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible against the vast majority of suspects.
In addition to ruling against Trump’s executive orders,
9th Circuit judges have taken more direct swipes at the president.
Ninth Circuit appeals court Judge Stephen Reinhardt in a May opinion said a Trump administration order to deport a man was “inhumane.”
“President Trump has claimed that his immigration policies would target the ‘bad hombres,’ ” Reinhardt said. “The government’s decision to remove Magana Ortiz shows that even the ‘good hombres’ are not safe.” Ortiz, a Hawaii coffee farmer, was deported to Mexico.