Opinion ID: 4547846
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Nationwide Injunction

Text: We uphold the district court’s entry of permanent injunctive relief barring DOJ from withholding or denying Plaintiffs’ Byrne awards based on the Challenged Conditions. However, we vacate the district court’s imposition of a nationwide injunction. The district court abused its discretion by issuing a nationwide injunction without determining whether Plaintiffs needed relief of this scope to fully recover. We do not remand to the district court for further consideration because Plaintiffs have established no nexus between their claimed injuries and the nationwide operation of the Challenged Conditions, and they advance no reason why limiting the injunction along state boundaries would not grant them full relief. Therefore, the geographical reach of the relief should be limited to California. “Although ‘there is no bar against . . . nationwide relief in federal district court or circuit court,’ such broad relief must be ‘necessary to give prevailing parties the relief to which they are entitled.’” California v. Azar, 911 F.3d 558, 582 (9th Cir. 2018) (quoting Bresgal v. Brock, 843 F.2d 1163, 1170–71 (9th Cir. 1987)). On appeal, Plaintiffs argue that they are entitled to nationwide relief by emphasizing evidence in the record, including declarations from “all types [of] grant recipients across the geographical spectrum” about how they are affected by the Challenged Conditions. Plaintiffs argue that the “far-reaching impact” of the Challenged Conditions makes this “one of the ‘exceptional cases’ in which program-wide relief is necessary.” The district court agreed, basing its analysis on “recent guidance” from the Ninth Circuit “on the breadth of evidence and inquiry needed to justify nationwide injunctive relief in the context of [Executive action] attempting to place similar conditions on grant funding.” See City & Cty. of San 24 CITY & COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO V. BARR Francisco, 349 F. Supp. 3d at 971 (citing City & Cty. of San Francisco v. Trump, 897 F.3d 1225, 1245 (9th Cir. 2018)). In those cases, we held that nationwide injunctions against unlawful Executive action, obtained by state and municipal plaintiffs, were overbroad where, among other things, the record contained no evidence showing impact to other jurisdictions. See Trump, 897 F.3d at 1244 (noting that the proffered evidence was “limited to the effect of the [Executive] Order on their governments and to the State of California”); Azar, 911 F.3d at 584 (holding that there was no “showing of nationwide impact or [harm to other jurisdictions of] sufficient similarity to the plaintiff states”). Citing these cases, the district court reasoned that, before issuing a nationwide injunction, it must “undertake ‘careful consideration’ of a factual record evidencing ‘nationwide impact,’ or in other words, ‘specific findings underlying the nationwide application of the injunction.’” City & Cty. of San Francisco, 349 F. Supp. 3d at 971 (quoting Trump, 897 F.3d at 1231, 1244). While it was correct to state this rule, the district court erred by considering only this rule. This rule addresses one form of tailoring: “Once a constitutional violation is found, a federal court is required to tailor the scope of the remedy to fit the nature and extent of the constitutional violation.” Trump, 897 F.3d at 1244 (quoting Hills v. Gautreaux, 425 U.S. 284, 293–94 (1976)). However, this is not the only form of tailoring a court must do when issuing a remedy. See, e.g., Azar, 911 F.3d at 584. We have long held that an injunction “should be no more burdensome to the defendant than necessary to provide complete relief to the plaintiffs before the court.” Los Angeles Haven Hospice, Inc. v. Sebelius, 638 F.3d 644, 664 (9th Cir. 2011) (quoting Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, CITY & COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO V. BARR 25 702 (1979)) (internal quotation marks omitted). Under this rule, the appropriate inquiry would be whether Plaintiffs themselves will continue to suffer their alleged injuries if DOJ were enjoined from enforcing the Challenged Conditions only in California. The district court did not make such a finding, and it is not apparent how the record would support one. We look first to the injuries Plaintiffs claimed. By imposing the Challenged Conditions, San Francisco argued, DOJ offered “an unacceptable choice: either comply with [the Challenged Conditions] and abandon local policies that San Francisco has found to promote public safety and foster trust and cooperation between law enforcement and the public, or maintain these policies but forfeit critical funds that it relies on to provide essential services to San Francisco residents.” San Francisco claimed that it faced “the immediate prospect of losing over $1.4 million” in program funds. California claimed it was at risk of “losing $31.1 million,” which would have devastating impacts on state and local law enforcement agencies, requiring many of their programs to be cut. An injunction barring DOJ from enforcing the Challenged Conditions within California’s geographical limits would resolve Plaintiffs’ injuries by returning Plaintiffs to the status quo. While extending this same relief to non-party jurisdictions beyond California’s geographical bounds would likely be of consequence to those other jurisdictions, it does nothing to remedy the specific harms alleged by the Plaintiffs in this case. A nationwide injunction was therefore unnecessary to provide complete relief. It was overbroad and an abuse of discretion. We acknowledge the “increasingly controversial” nature of nationwide injunctions, Innovation Law Lab v. Wolf, 951 26 CITY & COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO V. BARR F.3d 1073, 1094 (9th Cir. 2020), and distinguish this case from recent decisions in which we upheld this form of relief. See id. (affirming an injunction operating in four states within three circuits); E. Bay Sanctuary Covenant v. Barr (E. Bay Transit), Nos. 19-16487, 19-16773, slip. op. (9th Cir. Jul. 6, 2020) (same); E. Bay Sanctuary Covenant v. Trump (E. Bay Port-of-Entry), 950 F.3d 1242 (9th Cir. 2020). Plaintiffs here, a state and a municipality, “‘operate in a fashion that permits neat geographic boundaries.’” E. Bay Port-of-Entry, 950 F.3d at 1282–83 (quoting E. Bay Sanctuary Covenant v. Trump (E. Bay III), 354 F. Supp. 3d 1094, 1120–21 (N.D. Cal. 2018)). Because Plaintiffs do not operate or suffer harm outside of their own borders, the geographical scope of an injunction can be neatly drawn to provide no more or less relief than what is necessary to redress Plaintiffs’ injuries. This is distinguishable from a case involving plaintiffs that operate and suffer harm in a number of jurisdictions, where the process of tailoring an injunction may be more complex. We recognized this distinction when we affirmed the nationwide injunction entered in East Bay Port-of-Entry: The Organizations . . . represent “asylum seekers” broadly. Unlike the plaintiffs in California v. Azar—individual states seeking affirmance of an injunction that applied past their borders—the Organizations here “do not operate in a fashion that permits neat geographic boundaries.” [E. Bay] III, 354 F. Supp. 3d at 1120–21. . . An injunction that, for example, limits the application of the Rule to California, would not address the harm that one of the Organizations suffers from losing clients entering through the CITY & COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO V. BARR 27 Texas-Mexico border. One fewer asylum client, regardless of where the client entered the United States, results in a frustration of purpose (by preventing the organization from continuing to aid asylum applicants who seek relief), and a loss of funding (by decreasing the money it receives for completed cases). 950 F.3d at 1282–83 (citation omitted). Accordingly, we vacate the nationwide reach of the permanent injunction and limit its reach to California’s geographical boundaries.