Appeals court blocks California ban on for-profit prisons

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A larger panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has again blocked California’s first-in-the-nation ban on for-profit private prisons and immigration detention facilities. The panel ruled Monday that it is trumped by the federal government. The 2019 state law would have phased out privately run immigration jails in California by 2028. The law would have undermined a key piece of the nation’s detention system for immigrants. The law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom was one of many efforts to limit California’s cooperation with the federal government as then-President Donald Trump imposed hardline policies on immigration enforcement. But the Biden administration continued the U.S. government’s opposition to the law.