Trump tweets about the 9th Circuit, but the problem is way bigger

With the clock ticking ever closer to the 100-day benchmark, a federal judge thwarted yet another of President Trump’s key agenda items on specious 10th Amendment grounds Tuesday night. Judge William Orrick, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, blocked an executive order meant to strip federal grants from sanctuary cities.

True to form, POTUS responded to the judicial rebuke with a series of early-morning tweets calling out the widely criticized Ninth Federal Circuit and alluding back to the even more dubious rulings against his two travel moratoria earlier this year. (The Ninth Circuit is the federal appeals court to which any appeal of this ruling will go.)

First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017

Out of our very big country, with many choices, does everyone notice that both the "ban" case and now the "sanctuary" case is brought in ...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017

...the Ninth Circuit, which has a terrible record of being overturned (close to 80%). They used to call this "judge shopping!" Messy system.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017

Once again, Trump’s agenda has found itself hamstrung by the machinations of a judge in the circuit whose rulings have been overturned more than any of its counterparts.

While the president claims that his administration will appeal the case and take it to the  Supreme Court, his chances of success are questionable, even with the addition of Justice Gorsuch to the bench.

Yes, the kind of judge-shopping used to undermine his executive authority is “messy business,” but simple appeal alone will simply play into the system of judicial tyranny while alleviating none of it. These kinds of “ridiculous rulings” will continue, and the future of the republic – and the very nature of a government by consent of the people – will remain in the hands of black-robed overseers, the majority of which have long left the business of mere application and interpretation of the law for the allure of legislature by fiat.

The real remedy here is to invoke the power of the legislative branch to curb the power that lower judges – like the former Obama cash bundler William Orrick – have to rule on issues like the travel moratoria, the executive order on sanctuary cities, and the innumerable other items on the Trump agenda that likely would have been permitted under previous executives but have found themselves at the mercy of the bench under the Trump administration.

As outlined by Article III of the United States Constitution, every federal district and circuit court is a creation of the legislative branch, which decides their number and jurisdiction. In fact, one of the reasons that the so-called “Ninth Circus” is such a clown show is this very congressional action.

And what Congress giveth – as Conservative Review Senior Editor Daniel Horowitz points out in his book “Stolen Sovereignty” – Congress can take away, or at least restrict and limit.

In the realm of legislation, members of the Arizona delegation have proposed bills that would address the Ninth Circuit specifically, but a robust overhaul of the entire federal judiciary – as the stated problems are not merely a regional phenomenon – has yet to become a priority.

As long as both the Left and the American Right perpetuate the idea that the courts are, as Horowitz puts it, “the sole and final arbiter of every public policy issue, no matter how divorced from the Constitution and inimical to national interests those decisions may be,” as long as the myths persist that the problems can be fixed with the right judge appointments alone, be prepared for judicial tyranny to continue and for the sovereignty of the American people to remain at the capricious whims of progressives wielding wooden gavels.