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The 9th Circuit has a (well-earned) reputation for being, well, rather liberal (if not outright leftist) in its leanings. In fact, over the past two decades, the circuit, which encompasses Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, as well as Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, has far and away been the circuit reversed the most by the Supreme Court.
— Susie Moore ⚾️🌻🐶 (@SmoosieQ) April 22, 2025
That’s changed a bit more recently. In the 2023 term, the 5th Circuit actually garnered the most reversals (eight, for 80 percent of its cases heard by SCOTUS), followed by the 2nd Circuit (six, for 86 percent of its cases heard by SCOTUS), and then the 9th (five, for 50 percent of its cases heard by SCOTUS). The shift probably derives from various factors, but the bottom line is that we’ve actually seen some glimpses of sanity out of the 9th of late.
Such was on display on Monday, as the appellate court advised the district court (Judge Jamal Whitehead in the Western District of Washington) to slow its roll after interpreting the previous partial stay issued by the 9th Circuit “broadly enough to swallow the entire stay order.”
2/ Ninth Circuit also overruled district court’s effort to sidestep stay and require continued funding of NGOs. Here’s thread I wrote explaining what district court tried to do. https://t.co/KBLxeeBa9D
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) April 22, 2025
Here’s some of the back story:
The plaintiffs, several non-profit organizations and individuals, filed suit against President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and then-acting Secretary of Health and Human Services Dorothy Fink in the Western District of Washington on February 10, 2025. The suit sought a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, and a permanent injunction against the administration to enjoin it from implementing or enforcing the Executive Order and sought a declaration that the order is unlawful and invalid.
