The en banc 7th Circuit will consider whether a District Judge went to far in granting a nationwide injunction against the Trump E.O and could decide to limit the injunction to the Northern District of Illinois, which includes Chicago and the remaining portion of Illinois in the Northern District. A three Judge panel of the Seventh Circuit had previously upheld the nationwide injunction.
Senior Judge Ripple will not participate in the en banc consideration as he did not participate in the original case. The other two senior judges did participate and will be on the en banc panel. All active judges of the court will participate.
The three judge panel consisted of Rovner, Bauer and Mannion. Rovner, joined by Bauer, upheld the nationwide injunction. Mannion would have limited the injunction to the Northern District of Illinois.
We know where those three judges stand.
I am pretty certain that all 4 Trump appointees will join with Mannion.
Thirteen judges will be participating so Trump needs 7 and starts with 5. I think he gets Sykes as well, giving him 6 votes.
Wood and Hamilton will clearly join with Rovner and Bauer, giving the other side 4.
That leaves Flaum, Easterbrook and Kanne. Any one of them could give Trump a symbolic victory by voting to limit the injunction. But I can also see all three going the other way as well, which would uphold the injunction.
We won’t know until the decision comes down, though we might get clues IF they hold oral arguments, which is not a guarantee.
The entire current membership of the 7th Circuit is listed below.
49 Chief Judge Diane Pamela Wood Chicago, IL 1950 1995–present 2013–present — Clinton
43 Circuit Judge Joel Martin Flaum Chicago, IL 1936 1983–present 2000–2006 — Reagan
44 Circuit Judge Frank H. Easterbrook Chicago, IL 1948 1985–present 2006–2013 — Reagan
47 Circuit Judge Michael Stephen Kanne Lafayette, IN 1938 1987–present — — Reagan
48 Circuit Judge Ilana Rovner Chicago, IL 1938 1992–present — — G.H.W. Bush
52 Circuit Judge Diane S. Sykes Milwaukee, WI 1957 2004–present — — G.W. Bush
54 Circuit Judge David F. Hamilton Bloomington, IN 1957 2009–present — — Obama
55 Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett South Bend, IN 1972 2017–present — — Trump
56 Circuit Judge Michael B. Brennan Milwaukee, WI 1963 2018–present — — Trump
57 Circuit Judge Michael Y. Scudder Chicago, IL 1971 2018–present — — Trump
58 Circuit Judge Amy J. St. Eve Chicago, IL 1965 2018–present — — Trump
37 Senior Circuit Judge William Joseph Bauer Chicago, IL 1926 1974–1994 1986–1993 1994–present Ford
45 Senior Circuit Judge Kenneth Francis Ripple South Bend, IN 1943 1985–2008 — 2008–present Reagan
46 Senior Circuit Judge Daniel Anthony Manion South Bend, IN 1942 1986–2007 — 2007–present Reagan
