Liberal Court Hands Trump a Major Immigration Win
WASHINGTON — In a twist that surprised even seasoned court watchers, the liberal-led Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Trump administration a notable immigration victory this week. In a 2-1 ruling issued Thursday, October 30, 2026, the appeals court blocked a lower-court order that would have forced the State Department to reopen the 2027 Diversity Visa lottery application pool.
The decision keeps the government’s pause on the lottery in place while the underlying appeal moves forward — a procedural win, but a real one, for President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
The Case: Red Eagle Law v. Rubio
The fight centered on the case Red Eagle Law L.C. v. Rubio. In August, the immigration law firm sued the State Department after the application period for the fiscal 2027 Diversity Visa Program — which awards roughly 55,000 visas a year to people from countries with low U.S. immigration rates — never opened.
On October 14, U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta sided with the firm at the preliminary stage, issuing an injunction that ordered the government to announce registration dates by October 29 and begin accepting applications by November 1.
The Trump administration appealed on an emergency basis. The Ninth Circuit panel — Judges Mary Margaret McKeown, a Clinton appointee; Holly A. Thomas, a Biden appointee; and N. Randy Smith, a Bush appointee — concluded the government was likely to prevail and stayed the lower court’s order.
Why the Court Said No
The panel’s reasoning was grounded in a basic legal principle: standing. Red Eagle Law had sued on its own behalf, arguing that the paused lottery harmed its business because lottery applicants often hire attorneys. The court found that commercial interest too remote to support a federal lawsuit.
The majority warned that loosening the standing rule would open the “floodgates,” in the court’s words — inviting lawyers to “roam the country in search of governmental wrongdoing.” The opinion noted that Congress created the Diversity Visa Program to “encourage immigration, not generate revenue for law firms.”
Judge Smith went further in a separate concurrence, concluding the firm also lacked constitutional standing. Former federal prosecutor Abhishek Kambli called the outcome “a very easy call,” saying the district court should never have moved past the standing question.
A Narrow but Significant Win
The court was careful to stress the limits of its ruling. “We do not endorse the Department’s failure to open the lottery registration period,” the per curiam opinion stated — it simply held that Red Eagle was the wrong plaintiff to bring the case.
Still, the practical effect is clear: the 2027 Diversity Visa application pool stays closed for now, and the administration’s screening changes remain in place while the appeal proceeds. The ruling also arrives alongside other recent immigration victories for Trump at the Supreme Court, which has cleared the path for the Department of Homeland Security to limit asylum processing and unwind Temporary Protected Status designations.
The Backstory of the Pause
The administration suspended the Diversity Visa lottery last December after Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a notice delaying new applications so the department could “implement certain changes.” An indefinite pause on issuing diversity visas followed after a diversity-visa recipient was suspected in shooting incidents in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The legality of that suspension remains undecided — the Ninth Circuit left the question for another day and another plaintiff. For now, though, the Trump administration has the upper hand, and even one of the nation’s most liberal appeals courts agreed the challenge was brought by the wrong party.
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