Today was another good day for conservative judges on the Ninth Circuit—and especially for Judge Sandra Ikuta.
In both of its rulings today—Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee—the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit.
Judge Ikuta dissented from the Ninth Circuit’s denial of rehearing en banc in the Americans for Prosperity Foundation case. Judges Callahan, Bea, Bennett and R. Nelson joined her dissent. (The denial came before most of the Trump appointees arrived on the Ninth Circuit.)
Judge Ikuta also wrote the initial panel opinion in the case now known as Brnovich. A limited en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit, over the dissents of Judges O’Scannlain, Bybee, Clifton, and Callahan, rejected Ikuta’s holding, but the Supreme Court today reached the same conclusion she had.
That makes at least eight times this Term that the Supreme Court has vindicated conservative Ninth Circuit judges who have objected to that court’s failure to conduct en banc rehearing of suspect panel rulings or who dissented from en banc decisions. Ikuta led or was among the objectors in seven of the cases.