Pence: We Will Seek to End the Practice of District Judges Laying Down National Injunctions

It's a curious thing. When the Fifth Circuit, for example, makes new law, new precedent, it is not binding on other Circuits. Other circuits will look to how the Fifth Circuit ruled on the matter, should a similar case come before them, and they will view the Fifth Circuit's ruling with respect, but they do not consider it a controlling authority, just an informed opinion from a sister court.

It does not become binding on the nation as a whole until the Supreme Court endorses it as the controlling law.

You can, in fact, have "circuit splits," where some circuits apply one rule and others apply another. Sometimes the Supreme Court lets this situation persist for a while. Sometimes, a long while.

Even a district court in another circuit is free to ignore the law set down by another circuit courts. Circuit courts rank higher than district courts, but the circuit court of a different circuit has no authority over a district court of another circuit, and the district court may ignore that court's ruling and apply its own analysis and rule.

So why then do we have Hawaiian judges so eager to lay down flat injunctions which they claim to have power not only in their district, not only in their circuit, but in the nation as a whole?

Mike Pence and the White House are wondering about that.

One of the #resistance crowd’s favorite tools: using a district court to shut down a national policy. The #resistance seeks out an injunction against a disfavored policy by forum shopping for a liberal activist judge to intervene and immediately the entire nation is subject to the whims of a regional court.

Clever.

"The Supreme Court of the United States must clarify that district judges can decide no more than the cases before them -- and it’s imperative that we restore the historic tradition that district judges do not set policy for the whole nation," Pence told the Federalist Society.

"In the days ahead, our administration will seek opportunities to put this question before the Supreme Court-- to ensure that decisions affecting every American are made either by those elected to represent the American people or by the highest court in the land," Pence added.

Justice Thomas seems to agree with the administration's plan.

But you'll have to click over to AmGreatness' KBO for that quote.

posted by Ace of Spades at 02:08 PM

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