Updated

Updated · Fox News · Oct 30

Ninth Circuit Blocks 2027 Visa Lottery Order Over 55,000-Entry Program as Law Firm Lacks Standing

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Oct 30

Ninth Circuit Blocks 2027 Visa Lottery Order Over 55,000-Entry Program as Law Firm Lacks Standing

Q: Why did a court let the government keep the 2027 visa lottery closed without deciding whether the shutdown was lawful?

The court let the government keep the 2027 Diversity Visa lottery closed because it found the plaintiff likely had no legal right to bring the case, not because it decided the shutdown was lawful. The Ninth Circuit said the lawsuit was brought by Red Eagle, an immigration law firm, rather than by actual visa applicants. In the court’s view, the firm’s claimed injury was too indirect and speculative: it said the firm was mainly alleging a possible loss of future business from clients who might have applied. That was not enough to show standing under Article III, which requires a concrete injury that is fairly traceable to the government’s action and can be fixed by the court. The panel also said the law firm was outside the statute’s “zone of interests.” The diversity visa law was created to encourage immigration from underrepresented countries, the court said, not to protect law firms’ economic interests. Because of that, the judges said Red Eagle likely had no cause of action under the Administrative Procedure Act. So the appeals court issued an emergency stay blocking the lower court order that would have forced the State Department to open registration. It stressed that it was not approving the government’s failure to open the lottery; it simply held that this plaintiff could not sue on this record. That procedural ruling leaves the program closed for now while the appeal continues.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 30

A 2-1 Ninth Circuit panel halted a lower-court injunction that had ordered the State Department to open applications for the 2027 Diversity Visa lottery.
Red Eagle Law's lack of standing drove the ruling: the court said the 55,000-visa program exists to encourage immigration, not to create business for law firms.
The panel stressed it was not blessing the State Department's conduct, saying it did not endorse the agency's failure to open the registration period after Marco Rubio delayed it in November.
That delay was followed by an indefinite pause on issuing diversity visas after a 2017 lottery recipient was tied to a Brown University mass shooting that killed 2 people and injured 9.
The decision adds to a broader run of immigration wins for the Trump administration, which also secured Supreme Court backing on asylum limits and ending TPS protections for many Haitians and Syrians.