President Donald Trump also suggested that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is biased against him and his policies. | Getty Trump attacks judiciary for blocking order on sanctuary cities

President Donald Trump accused the “outrageous” 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday of being “semi-automatic” with rulings against his administration.

“Everybody immediately runs to the 9th Circuit,” Trump complained in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “And we have a big country. We have lots of other locations. But they immediately run to the 9th Circuit. Because they know that's like, semi-automatic.”


Trump said he is “absolutely” considering proposals to split up the three-judge panel, insisting that “there are many people that want to break up the 9th Circuit.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the president renewed his attacks on the nation’s judiciary, blaming the 9th Circuit for the ruling by a federal district court judge that blocked his administration’s move to deny federal funding to so-called sanctuary cities.

“First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court!” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning.

“I’m never surprised by the 9th Circuit,” Trump told a reporter later Wednesday during a signing ceremony for an unrelated executive order. “As I said: We’ll see them in the Supreme Court.”

Judge William Orrick, who handed down Tuesday’s injunction, is a U.S. district court judge based in San Francisco and does not sit on the 9th Circuit, although that is the next court that would hear the case should the Trump administration appeal the decision. Some observers consider all federals courts in the states where the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has jurisdiction to be collectively the 9th Circuit.

he ruling was panned by the White House, which released a statement from press secretary Sean Spicer’s office declaring that “today, the rule of law suffered another blow, as an unelected judge unilaterally rewrote immigration policy for our Nation.”

“This case is yet one more example of egregious overreach by a single, unelected district judge,” the White House statement continued. “Today’s ruling undermines faith in our legal system and raises serious questions about circuit shopping.”

Before Wednesday’s tweets, Trump’s most recent tirade against the judicial branch was also targeted at the 9th Circuit, which upheld a district court’s stay that blocked his executive order banning immigrants from certain Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S. The 9th Circuit has yet to hear arguments on Trump's revised travel ban. Those arguments are slated for May 15.

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Trump also suggested that the 9th Circuit is biased against him and his policies, tweeting in subsequent posts that “Out of our very big country, with many choices, does everyone notice that both the ‘ban’ case and now the ‘sanctuary’ case is brought in the Ninth Circuit, which has a terrible record of being overturned (close to 80%). They used to call this ‘judge shopping!’ Messy system.”

In an interview Wednesday morning on Fox News, Spicer was critical of the federal district judge's ruling to block Trump’s sanctuary cities order. By basing his decision in part on rhetoric from Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Spicer said, Orrick had stepped outside the bounds of what should have been considered. “The idea that any judge or any jurisdiction would not be wanting to help make sure that we can protect our citizens runs counter to, frankly, what we should all be looking for,” Spicer said.

“Do you think the 9th Circuit’s got it in for the White House?" Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer asked Spicer.

“Well, I don’t know that they have it in for the White House,” he replied. “They have a horrible record of interpreting that law. And that’s just a fact.”

Nolan D. McCaskill contributed to this report.