Immigration

SCOTUS to hear Trump’s Muslim travel ban appeal; ban to partially go into effect

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The U.S. Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the go-ahead Monday to begin enforcing part of the president’s executive order restricting travel from six predominately Muslim countries.

Trump, in a statement called the court’s action “a clear victory for our national security.”

“Today’s ruling allows me to use an important tool for protecting our Nation’s homeland,” Trump said in the statement. “I am also particularly gratified that the Supreme Court’s decision was 9-0.”

This is not at all true. This is “alternative facts” in Trump World’s alternative reality, in which Dear Leader must always be winning.

While the full Court said it would hear the case in the fall, six of the justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, kept part of the injunction from lower courts in place while allowing only part of the 90-day halt on new visas from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen to go into effect.

The Court asked the parties to brief the issue whether this case is moot as of June 14, the expiration of the original executive order. And because this case will not be heard until October and likely decided sometime later, the Court has set up this case to be dismissed as moot, so that it can avoid rendering a decision on the merits this fall.

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Will justice finally arrive for Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio?

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“The most corrupt sheriff in America” finally lost his elected office last Novenber, and now justice may finally arrive for Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio. Criminal contempt trial of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio set to open Monday:

Joe Arpaio — the man, not the lawman — is the defendant in a federal criminal trial scheduled to begin in Phoenix on Monday.

Unlike before, efforts by his attorneys to delay, dismiss or otherwise adjust the trial this time around have not been successful so far.

The court proceeding is scheduled to last for two weeks, with prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section.

The former Maricopa County sheriff is accused of defying a federal judge’s orders that barred Arpaio from enforcing federal immigration law.

The alleged criminal contempt of court happened over a period of 18 months in 2012 and 2013, when Arpaio was still in office.

Arpaio already has been found in civil contempt for the same case. Under the law, the difference between civil and criminal contempt is intent — whether the defendant willfully or unintentionally violated a judge’s order.

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9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously rejects Trump’s revised Muslim travel ban

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Donald Trump continues to go “oh for” in the federal courts with his discriminatory Muslim travel bans.

Today a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s revised Muslim travel ban, joining the en banc Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in rejecting the revised Muslim travel ban because of unconstitutional discrimination. Read the ruling HERE (.pdf).

The San Franciso Chronicle reports, Federal appeals court in SF deals Trump another travel ban defeat:

President Trump’s second attempt to ban U.S. entry by anyone from a group of nations with overwhelmingly Muslim populations was rejected Monday by a San Francisco-based federal appeals court, which said Trump had exceeded his authority and violated a ban on discrimination based on national origin.

The 3-0 ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco follows a May 24 decision by [the Fourth Circuit] appeals court in Richmond, Va., that reached the same conclusion. The Trump administration has appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Note: “The justices have asked the challengers to file responses to the petition for review and the requests for stays of the lower courts’ rulings. Those responses are due on or before 3 p.m. on Monday, June 12.“ This is likely why the Ninth Circuit issued its ruling today.  Stay tuned.

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4th Circuit Court of Appeals will not reinstate Trump Muslim travel ban

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In a continuing series of defeats before the courts for President Trump’s ill-considered Muslim travel ban, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday refused to reinstate President Trump’s revised Muslim travel ban, saying it discriminated on the basis of religion. Federal appeals court largely maintains freeze of Trump’s travel ban:

The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit means the Trump administration still cannot enforce its travel order that the government says is urgently needed for national security.

In its 10 to 3 en banc decision, the Richmond-based court said the president’s broad immigration power to deny entry into the U.S. is not absolute.

“It cannot go unchecked when, as here, the president wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation,” according to the majority opinion written by Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory, and joined in part by nine other judges.

The 4th Circuit declined to lift an order from a Maryland federal judge, who ruled against the travel ban in March and sided with opponents who said the ban violates the Constitution by intentionally discriminating against Muslims. The ruling leaves the injunction in place and means citizens from Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya can continue entering the United States.

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Action Alert: budget to be debated in the Arizona legislature today

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Over at the madhouse on Washington Street, i.e., the Arizona legislature, they have been teasing the possibility of a budget deal all week.

Their problem is that the budget is tied to Governor Doug Ducey’s unpopular bonding plan for the state universities to avoid having to rise taxes as the Arizona Constitution requires.  And that plan is in trouble. Lawmakers, governor move closer to a budget deal, including university bonding:

[T]he earliest budget bills could clear the Legislature and be sent to the governor’s desk for a signature is now Thursday. According to the Arizona Constitution, budget bills must be read in three calendar days. Budget proposal to be debated Thursday.

Budget documents used to brief GOP lawmakers, obtained by the Arizona Capitol Times, reveal a tentative deal that gives Ducey much of what he asked for, including a host of new initiatives to boost K-12 funding, new school construction and maintenance dollars, and money for a two percent teacher pay raise over two years.

It also appears that a deal struck that governor’s university bonding proposal, a sticking point, has ended the stalemate at the Capitol.

The university bonding plan was pitched by the Arizona Board of Regents as a mechanism that would allow universities to keep the sales taxes they would ordinarily pay to the state, which they would then use to borrow up to $1 billion. In Fiscal Year 2018, the sales tax was estimated to be $30.3 million from the state’s share, and nearly $7 million from the cities and counties’ share. Critics of the plan, who included several GOP lawmakers, questioned how much the pot of sales tax money would grow each year, and worried about its impact on cities and counties.

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