Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules in a Lawsuit Challenging AB 32, California’s Private Prison Ban

Today a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the private prison industry in a 2-1 ruling in a case involving a challenge to AB 32, California’s state law that banned the private prison industry. AB 32 was signed by Governor Newsom in 2019 and set forth the state’s plan to phase out all private detention facilities located in California. The lawsuit was brought by the GEO Group, Inc., together with the United States. The panel reversed the district court’s grant of the appellees’ motions to dismiss and and remanded the case to the district court.

The panel reasoned that the California law improperly impeded the regulation of immigration law: “In short, Assembly Bill 32 does not regulate a field which the states have traditionally occupied. To the contrary, it tries to regulate an area—detention of immigrants—that belongs exclusively in the realm of the federal government.”

The Dignity not Deaths Coalition which supported the AB 32 legislation issued the following statement:

The Biden administration’s horrific abuse of Haitian migrants in Del Rio late last month has shown that the administration has betrayed clear promises and violated core values by putting the lives of immigrant community members at risk. We continue to demand an immediate end to deportations and that humanitarian parole be granted.

Meanwhile, today’s ruling on AB 32, brought about by the administration’s decision to continue a Trump-era lawsuit, is another grim marker of the administration’s descent into Trumpian immigration policy.

In this painful moment, we demand that the Biden administration and Congress take immediate action to repair the harm wrought today, including decreasing funding for abusive detention and reinvesting in proven, community-based alternatives. The long record of medical neglect and systemic abuses plaguing detention — and the anti-Blackness and racism deeply embedded in the system– must not be swept under the rug.

Today’s ruling is a stark lesson about the threat unchecked corporate power poses to the democratic process. Yet AB 32 is one tactic in a large quest for justice. People who are currently in detention and their loved ones continue to organize for freedom and dignity every day. We must answer the call of solidarity and redouble our efforts to end all detention, whether run by a corporation or the government.

IE