Trump Struggling Against the US Judicial Branch?

• 05.03.2017, 17:22
• Liana Hovhannisyan
•  America,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World

Disagreements between Trump and different judicial bodies continue. Recently the US president Donald Trump threatened to disband the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after San Francisco District Judge blocked Trump’s administration order to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities if they limit their cooperation with federal authorities on migration issues.

To note, Trump spoke about disbanding the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, when the order of his administration was blocked only by the Francisco District court.  As it is known, there is a hierarchy of the federal courts in the US (district level trial courts, courts of appeals and the Supreme Court, the decision of each level court is binding for the courts below it).

How can one explain such a statement by Trump and is it possible to disband the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit?

It should be noted, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit became a target for Trump after it blocked the previous order of Trump on migrants, which limited the entry of the citizens of predominantly Muslim countries to the US. Still at that time, the Republicans presented a bill to the US Congress, according to which they wanted to take out the US five states from the jurisdiction of the 9^th Circuit and to create their separate district court of appeals.

They explain their position by the big size of the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeal (20 percent of the US population and 40 percent of its territory are under the jurisdiction of this district court of appeal). Besides, 18 of the 25 judges of that court are Democrats and it is known as the most liberal court in the US. The court was nicknamed “Nutty 9th” by the conservatives, as according to them, the majority of the decisions of this court of appeal were rejected by the US Supreme Court.

It should be noted that the US Supreme Court is the only court which is created by the US Constitution. All the other courts are created by the congressional acts and only Congress can disband them. Such a system is not occasional and was founded by the US founding fathers to let the legislative branch have leverages over judiciary branch.

Thus refereeing to the question, whether the US President can disband the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; we should answer positively, in case the suggestion of the president enjoys approval of the US Congress.