Even the Roberts Court has 'lost patience' with far-right appellate judges’ 'shenanigans'

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is known for its abundance of right-wing federal judges, enjoying jurisdiction over district courts in three red states: Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is further to the right than it has been in generations, with GOP appointees comprising two-thirds of the justices.

But The New Republican's Matt Ford, in an article published on March 21, describes some unlikely conflicts and disagreements between the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Roberts Court — one of them over Texas Senate Bill 4.

"For a few hours on Tuesday night, (March 19)," Ford explains, "the state of Texas had its own immigration system. The Supreme Court declined to block Senate Bill 4, the state's controversial new immigration law, from going into effect for procedural reasons. After some chiding by the justices, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals then eventually lifted its order that allowed the law to take effect."

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Ford continues, "At least two of the justices in the majority, however, signaled that they would not allow the procedural mischief that abounded in this case to happen again. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, warned that they might be open to overcoming those shenanigans in the future."

The 5th Circuit, according to Ford, has often shown a "willingness to act as a vehicle for quixotic laws and lawsuits from conservatives to change or block national policies." But the High Court's "move on Tuesday," Ford adds, could "be a sign that their patience with this state of affairs is running out."

"Under SB 4," Ford notes, "illegal entry into the United States is a state-level crime, empowering state law-enforcement agencies to make arrests for potential violations of it…. The Constitution gives that power to the federal government, however, not to the states…. This is the second time in recent weeks that the federal judiciary has implicitly dinged the 5th Circuit for its procedural mischief."

Ford continues, "Earlier this month, the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policymaking body for the federal courts, announced a new rule that requires courts to assign cases of national importance at random when they are filed in single-judge divisions. The conference said the change was necessary to '(deter) judge-shopping and the assignment of cases based on the perceived merits or abilities of a particular judge'…. Tuesday's move by the Court is another sign that the federal judiciary as a whole has lost patience with the legal legerdemain that takes place in Texas."

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Read The New Republic's full report at this link.