“Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears” is a blog series documenting the harmful impact of President Trump’s judges on Americans’ rights and liberties. It includes judges nominated in both his first and second terms.
What’s at stake in this case?
The Ninth Circuit was asked to reconsider a decision letting the government deport a Peruvian family.
What happened in this case?
Immigration authorities ordered a Peruvian family deported. The family asked the Ninth Circuit to stay the deportation order so they could stay in the country while challenging it. Last year, a three-judge panel denied the family’s stay request. This month, a full en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit vacated the panel ruling and granted rehearing. Trump judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote a solo dissent in the February 2026 order in Rojasespinoza v Bondi .
In an attempt to criticize the ruling in this and other cases in which the Ninth Circuit has stayed deportation orders, VanDyke invented an imaginary “Circuit of Wackadoo”, which routinely grants such stays, and which he clearly was comparing to the Ninth Circuit, even while denying he was doing so. Commentators have criticized Van Dyke’s dissent, noting that he had effectively turned the dissent into a “full-on pandering drenched in the kind of belittling rhetoric that reliably delights Donald Trump and the MAGA faithful.” For example, VanDyke wrote that the Ninth Circuit’s internal dialogue on immigration cases resembles a “judicial Oprah Winfrey, confused by her own popularity,”
What is the significance of VanDyke’s dissent?
VanDyke’s dissent has no specific effect on the case it was written in, since the case will now proceed to reconsideration as every judge but him voted to do. But the dissent illustrates just how sarcastic and radical Van Dyke can be, having written a dissent that “reads less like a serious judicial disagreement and more like an audition tape” for a possibly open seat on the Supreme Court. The dissent also illustrates the importance of our federal courts to health, welfare and justice and the significance of having fair-minded judges on the federal bench.