Geo Group v. Inslee - Ninth Circuit Denies Rehearing

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc in the case of The GEO Group, Inc. v. Jay Inslee. The court's prior decision had vacated a preliminary injunction that had prevented the enforcement of Sections 2, 3, 5, and 6 of Washington House Bill 1470, a law aimed at protecting the health and safety of civil detainees at the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center. The panel also granted in part GEO Group's motion to remand the case to the district court.

This denial of rehearing means the prior ruling stands, which vacated the injunction. The case involved a dispute over the appropriate comparators for GEO's civil detention facility, with the majority finding them to be residential treatment facilities and involuntary civil commitment facilities, rather than state jails and prisons as argued by the dissent. The dissent argued that Washington's law discriminated against federal operations, violating the Supremacy Clause. No new compliance actions are immediately required for regulated entities as this is a judicial decision on a prior ruling.