The Supreme Court repudiated the Fifth Circuit in eight cases, more than any other court this term, but legal experts say the appeals court still served as an important pipeline of cases advancing conservative legal causes, Courthouse News Reports. Court watchers provided one explanation for the Fifth Circuit’s uneven ratio of losses. “(T)hey're very happy to be a forum for parties nationwide who want to challenge the federal government,” Alison LaCroix, a professor of law and history at the University of Chicago, said in an interview. Eight out of the 11 appeals at the Supreme Court from the Fifth Circuit this term involved challenges to the federal government.
In a challenge to federal agency funding, the appeals court would have defunded a watchdog agency. The Fifth Circuit also ruled to strictly limit how the Biden administration shares information with social media platforms, throw out federal gun prohibitions on domestic abuser firearm ownership and curtail access to an abortion drug nationwide. “The Fifth Circuit has been willing to be that kind of marketplace or litigation domain in which those arguments are being aired,” LaCroix said. All of the rulings that affirmed the Fifth Circuit this term involved federal policies, with only one falling in the government’s favor. The Supreme Court upheld rulings dictating requirements to deport noncitizens, discarding a federal ban on bump stocks and overhauling federal agency law enforcement.