REPORTING ON TRUMP VERSUS JUDICIARY THROUGH ROUND 6

A blow-by-blow account of Trump’s match with the judiciary

By Howie Katz

Big Jolly Times
November 23, 2018

Round 1

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar landed a hard blow to President Trump’s solar plexus by issuing a temporary nationwide injunction to stop Trump’s order prohibiting immigrants who crossed the border illegally from being granted asylum. Judge Tigar sits on the bench in San Francisco and is an Obama appointee. He ruled that the administration must consider claims of asylum no matter where migrants cross the U.S. border.

Round 2

Trump insisted he had been hit with a low blow but came back swinging at Tigar and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On Tuesday Trump tweeted:

“This was an Obama judge, and I'll tell you what, it's not going to happen like this anymore. Everybody that wants to sue the U.S. – almost – they file their case in the 9th Circuit, and it means an automatic loss. No matter what you do, no matter how good your case is. And the 9th Circuit is really something we have to take a look at, because it's not fair.”

Round 3

When Judge Tigar failed to come out for Round 3, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts took his place and struck a blow to the chin that knocked Trump on his ass. On Wednesday Roberts told the Associated Press:

“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. The independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

Round 4

Saved by the bell, Trump was revived and came out swinging hard. He landed his own blow to Roberts’ solar plexus. On Wednesday he tweeted:

“Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have ‘Obama judges,’ and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country.”

“Justice Roberts can say what he wants, but the 9th Circuit is a complete & total disaster. It is out of control, has a horrible reputation, is overturned more than any Circuit in the Country, 79%, & is used to get an almost guaranteed result. Judges must not Legislate Security ...and Safety at the Border, or anywhere else. They know nothing about it and are making our Country unsafe. Our great Law Enforcement professionals MUST BE ALLOWED TO DO THEIR JOB! If not there will be only bedlam, chaos, injury and death. We want the Constitution as written!”

Round 5

An emboldened Trump took on all 29 judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In a Thanksgiving Day conference call to the military, Trump said:

“We get a lot of bad court decisions from the Ninth Circuit, which has become a big thorn in our side. It's a terrible thing when judges take over your protective services, when they tell you how to protect your border. It's a disgrace.”

Round 6

When all of Trump’s challengers had left the ring, attorney George Conway sneaked in and struck Trump with a rabbit punch. On Thursday Conway tweeted:

“The number of Ninth Circuit cases reviewed and reversed was high, but the Ninth Circuit is by far largest federal circuit by number of judges and size of docket. Anyway, to put the point more simply, the Supreme Court doesn't usually take cases to affirm them, which is why the statistic the President is citing is misleading.”

The referee immediately signaled he could not count Trump out because of the foul rabbit punch and said he would let the fight go on whenever the fallen gladiator was ready.

Conway is the husband of Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway. An infuriated Kellyanne stood outside the ring and shouted a demand for a winner-take-all, bare knuckled Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) match with George. Kellyanne put George in a no-win situation. If George accepts his wife’s challenge and wins, you know where he will be sleeping from then on … it won’t be in bed with Kellyanne.

Analysis

Will there be a round 7? Being the fighter that Trump is, I'd say yes, but possibly not until the case Judge Tigar ruled on traverses its course through the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals onto the Supreme Court.

Trump missed with several of his punches. At first he seemed to have confused a District Judge with Appellate Judges. And he was wrong when he said, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals “is overturned more than any Circuit in the Country.”

According to an analysis on SCOTUSblog, in the October 2017 term, the reversal rate for the Ninth Circuit was 86 percent and the rate for all circuit courts was 76 percent — with three circuits being reversed 100 percent of the time.

Trump’s criticism of the Ninth Circuit was spot on. The U.S. District Judges in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California are among the most liberal judges in the country and their far out left rulings have usually been upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

How will this fight end? I suspect Judge Tigar’s ruling will be upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. And I have a gut feeling that the Supreme Court will side with Tigar’s ruling that we cannot deny asylum to immigrants because they crossed the border illegally. Don’t be surprised to see Trump appointee Justice Brett Kavanaugh join in with the liberal justices on this one.