California Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed federal judges for refusing to let state and local governments clear homeless encampments from the streets — but many of the judges involved are liberals, or Democratic Party appointees.
Newsom took to Twitter on Tuesday to support entrepreneur Elon Musk, who called for a boycott of the Latham & Watkins law firm that is representing a non-profit organization that is suing the City of San Francisco on behalf of homeless people. Newsom even agreed that California had spent billions on homelessness with little progress to show for it. But he blamed “federal courts,” not the law firm, saying that the courts “must be held accountable.”
The flaw in Newsom’s argument — leaving aside from the broadside attack on the judiciary — is that many of the federal judges involved in lawsuits restraining California’s cities from acting on homelessness are liberals, like him.
In San Francisco, the city was blocked from clearing homeless camps last December by U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu. She was appointed in 2010 by judges in the Northern District of California during President Barack Obama’s push to hire more women and minorities.
The appeal to Ryu’s ruling is being heard by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that includes one Donald Trump appointee — and two Joe Biden appointees.
In Los Angeles, the partisan allegiance of the federal court presiding over key litigation is even more stark. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, made a sweeping ruling in 2012 ordering the city and the county to provide housing for homeless people. His decision was overturned by the Ninth Circuit.
Carter he was also publicly and repeatedly cited by the January 6 Committee when he stated an opinion that the former president broke the law — an opinion now driving criminal prosecutions of Trump at the state and federal level. CNN has also noted that Judge Carter once ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress as a Democrat in California.
So when Gov. Newsom takes a stand against federal judges who are ruling against local efforts to clear homeless encampments from his state, he is railing against liberal jurists whom he and his party are responsible for elevating.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.