1. Ninth Circuit panel limits nationwide injunction of Trump administration immigration rule
2. Last week, Andrew Yang led in Ballotpedia pageviews for the first time since March
3. Hawaii became a state 60 years ago today

Ninth Circuit panel limits nationwide injunction of Trump administration immigration rule

Last Friday, a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a federal district court went too far when it granted a nationwide injunction against a new federal immigration rule.

What happened?

The Ninth Circuit upheld the injunction, which blocks enforcement of a rule, within the bounds of the Ninth Circuit (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington) but held that the nationwide scope of the injunction was not supported by the record. The panel said that the district court did not explain why it believed a nationwide injunction was necessary in this case.

The panel consisted of Judges Wallace Tashima, Milan Smith, and Mark James Bennett. They were appointed to the 9th Circuit by Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump, respectively. 

How did we get here?

On July 24, Judge Jon Tigar, on United States District Court for the Northern District of California, issued a nationwide injunction blocking a Trump administration rule while court challenges to the rule moved forward.

The interim final rule, issued on July 16, aims to deny asylum to people who travel through another country and fail to file for asylum there before applying in the United States.

The agencies argued that immigration enforcement challenges on the southern border allowed them to issue the new asylum rule under the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) good cause exception to notice-and-comment procedures. The good cause exception allows agencies to issue rules without waiting for public comment if those procedures would be “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” The agencies also argued that they could skip notice-and-comment procedures because the rule involved a “foreign affairs function of the United States” and procedural delay could have negative international consequences.

Judge Tigar wrote that the agencies did not show that a public comment period would have undesirable international consequences and that the rule fails the arbitrary-or-capricious test. Under that test, judges invalidate rules that are an abuse of discretion or not in accordance with law.

What happens next?

The Ninth Circuit panel asked the district court to reconsider the reasons supporting a nationwide injunction and scheduled future arguments in the case for December 2019.

Learn more

In early August, Seattle held primary elections for seven of nine city council seats. Three incumbents are running for re-election, and all three advanced from the primary. Find out who supports these candidates in our latest episode of Beyond The Headlines.

Last week, Andrew Yang led in Ballotpedia pageviews for the first time since March

Each week, we report the number of pageviews received on Ballotpedia by 2020 presidential campaigns . These numbers show which candidates are getting our readers’ attention.

Andrew Yang’s campaign page on Ballotpedia received 5,656 pageviews for the week of August 11-17. Yang’s pageview figure represents 10.2% of the pageviews for all Democratic candidates during the week. Joe Biden had 8.2% of pageviews for the week, followed by Elizabeth Warren with 6.7%.

Of the 23 noteworthy Democratic candidates, all but seven had fewer Ballotpedia pageviews last week than the week before. The three largest week-over-week increases were Tom Steyer (13.30%), Wayne Messam (7.89%), and Andrew Yang (5.78%).

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Hawaii became a state 60 years ago today

On this day 60 years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower admitted Hawaii as the 50th state to join the United States. Here are some quick facts about the state:

• Democrats control both the state Senate (24-1) and the state House (46-5).
• The state government is under a Democratic triplex, meaning the governor and attorney general are both Democratic. 
• Hawaii does not have a secretary of state. It’s one of three states where the position doesn’t exist (Alaska and Utah are the other two).
• No statewide ballot measures have been certified as of August 19 for the 2020 election. Twelve measures appeared on the statewide ballot between 2010 and 2018.
• The State of Hawaii counts 137 islands in its chain, but only seven are inhabited.
• Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee.

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