Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Faces Major Setback as Appeals Court Shreds Him

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

The 9th Circuit just dealt a set back to the Trump Administration, siding for now with Federal Judge Alsup who by injunction ordered Trump to rehire tens of thousands of federal workers today. But on the same day as his set back, Trump’s first federal judge opening is, where else? The “liberal-minded” 9th Circuit Court based in San Francisco. Michael Popok ties it all together with his reporting. Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://TryMiracle.com/LEGALAF and use the code LEGALAF to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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California. On one hand, just a few minutes ago, they ruled against Donald Trump and the Trump administration to try to stop Judge Alsop's order, a lower court judge, requiring by injunction that Donald Trump rehire all of those tens of thousands of probationary federal workers that they fired in an unconstitutional way in violation of law. The Ninth Circuit in a two-to-one decision said, we're not doing that. We're not staying. We're going to keep the status quo as created by Judge Alsop.

But in the cruel twist of fate feature, the first opening, the first vacancy since the Trump administration started is in the Ninth Circuit. That'll be the first new judge, a Trumper, who will be appointed. Who was the person who voted against the, or voted for the Trump administration today and on the losing end of a two-to-one decision at the Ninth Circuit, a Trump-appointed judge. I tie it all together here on the Midas Touch Network. I'm talking about the case brought by the largest union representing federal workers, the American Federation of Government Employees and the AFL-CIO against the United States

Office of Personnel Management, its acting director, Charles Azell, and the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, and others. And this was that hearing that we'd spent so much time talking about in Hot Takes where Judge Alsop, a senior status judge, in fact a judge we know well, Ben Mycelis, my law partner here on the Midas Touch Network, practiced in front of Judge Alsop, very well considered a lion of the federal bench. He said, I think you're lying to me about the fact that you fired these probationary workers, the lifeblood of our federal democracy and our bureaucracy. And these people are important to connect the American people to their government. To be loyal and faithful civil servants, we need probationary workers to grow up through

the organization, to be trained in the organization. And you just fired them all. And you lied to me and said it was done for performance reasons. So we know that's not true. Judge entered an order to try to preserve what's called the status quo before the bad conduct, the status quo before the bad conduct. That's the status quo that judges care about. And in order to get back that, unscramble the egg, the judge issued an injunction, later a preliminary injunction,

that ordered the Trump administration to rehire everybody and do that by today. Another judge in Maryland did the same thing, Judge Breddar. This led to an appeal by Donald Trump to the Ninth Circuit on the merits of the case. We call that a merits appeal. In the meantime, they asked for a stay from the judge. Judge Alasop said no. They asked the Ninth Circuit for an administrative stay, hold the ring until the full appeal can be conducted. And then a two-to-one decision, with the one person being a Trump-appointed judge, the Ninth Circuit said no.

And basically, it's very short, they did it in a page, they said that given that the district court found that the employees were wrongfully terminated and ordered an immediate return to the status quo, in other words, what is the state of affairs before the wrongful conduct? That was they were employed. We gotta go back to they were employed. That's the status quo that this injunction preserves.

And the stay, since the stay would not preserve the status quo, right, staying it would actually overturn the status quo, and therefore the appellate court said in a two-to-one decision, no. An administrative stay of the district court's order would not preserve the status quo, therefore it would do just the opposite, it would disrupt the status quo and turn it on its head, and therefore it set a briefing

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Thank you Miracle Maid for sponsoring this episode. The judge in dissent, Judge Bade, a Trump appointee, she went through an eight or nine page analysis as to why she thinks the status quo can't be fixed because the whiplash effect of firing and hiring, hiring and firing. Look, I've questioned myself, who's gonna wanna return to the Trump administration at this point once fired?

But that's not the order of the judge. The judge is to rehire them the best you can and about these six agencies. So I disagree with Judge Bate about the status quo can't be preserved and therefore we should issue an administrative stay. I don't think that's the right factor analysis and I agree with the two judges who sided

against her. Now here's the twist of fate. We knew there were eventually judges were going to start resigning or retiring or dying. It happens and we're already over 60 days into this administration. Would you believe the first judge opening just happened? Where else? Same day, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. As Trump tries to reshape the face of the judiciary his second time around, the 9th

Circuit is often referred to as a very moderate to liberal circuit. It's getting a little bit less so because Trump had his hand the first time around to put some liberal judge, to put some moderate, sorry, right-wing MAGA judges, I'll get it right, right-wing MAGA judges on that court. Now he's already got his first opening. You know, he'll probably get three or four more, moving it to the center, if not towards the right,

for a reliably moderate liberal circuit, the ninth. That's why so many of the cases filed against the Trump administration so far are being filed in California in order to get to the Ninth Circuit. But Sandra Siegel Ikuta, who was appointed by George W. Bush, has said she's thrown in the towel, she's hit senior status, she'll stay as a judge on the bench until there is a appointment and a confirmation by Donald Trump. It won't be the last, unfortunately.

He'll probably get the ability to appoint a couple of hundred before this is over. And I haven't even gotten to the point that we raised before the election that Donald Trump will likely try to use MAGA Congress to expand the federal judiciary, to add maybe up to a thousand new judges that he gets to appoint, much like Ronald Reagan did his time around. We're not there yet, but you can see that on the other side of the coin of the assault

on the judiciary by Donald Trump is to expand the judiciary to allow him to appoint all of his sycophants and bootlickers and MAGA supporting people. And that would devastate what, you know, it would change for two generations what our judiciary looks like and its political leanings. So good news, Ninth Circuit denies the administrative stay, keeps the injunction in place. Donald Trump will have to go up to the United States Supreme Court, probably take it up with the Maryland case that's also against him after it comes through the 4th Circuit. But we got a loss for Donald Trump at the appellate level, another one from the 9th

Circuit. But we got the first toehold in Donald Trump to resurface or change the face of the Ninth Circuit with the retirement of one of the judges. I'll continue to follow it all on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Until my next reporting, I'm Michael Popock. Build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at LegalAFMTN. That's at LegalAFMTN.