President-elect Donald Trump announced he would personally receive the “Fox Patriot of the Year Award” at the Patriot Awards on Thursday night in Long Island. Trump posted on social media, “I look greatly forward to attending the Fox News Patriot Awards, hosted by Sean Hannity, in New York on Thursday evening. I will be receiving the Fox Patriot of the Year Award — so nice! See you there.”
The sixth annual Patriot Awards will be streamed live Thursday evening on Fox Nation, Fox News’ subscription-based streaming service. Prime-time host Sean Hannity will serve as the event’s host, stepping in for long-time host Pete Hegseth, who left the network after being nominated by President Trump to serve as Secretary of Defense. The event will also air on Fox News over the weekend and is expected to be a major highlight for the conservative-leaning streaming platform, which boasts over two million subscribers. Fox Nation was the first streaming service launched by the three major cable news networks, Mediaite reported.
Meanwhile, a unanimous decision from a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday affirmed that the federal government has the power to deport individuals residing in the United States illegally, even in the face of opposition from local officials. The ruling somes as the Biden administration winds down its tenure and President-elect Trump signals a shift back to strict immigration policies.
The court’s 29-page opinion, authored by Judge Daniel Bress and joined by Judges Michael Hawkins and Richard Clinton, reinforced the federal government’s primary authority in immigration enforcement. This ruling effectively overrides local and state efforts to block deportation actions. The case centered around an executive order issued in April 2019 by Dow Constantine, the King County Executive in Washington State. This directive barred U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using a county airfield near Seattle for charter flights deporting foreign nationals. King County contended that it had the authority to block federal immigration actions that could disrupt local communities.
Nevertheless, the appeals court decisively dismissed this argument in a decision that comes just weeks after Trump’s reelection, which many believe was influenced by his commitment to restore and broaden deportation efforts. Trump’s transition team has already indicated plans to issue a series of executive orders aimed at increasing deportations and limiting asylum protections.
King County International Airport has been at the center of a prolonged legal dispute over its role in immigration enforcement. According to The Denver Gazette, King County Executive Dow Constantine issued an order preventing the airport—located next to a major Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) base in Seattle—from facilitating the transportation and deportation of immigration detainees in ICE custody, whether domestically or internationally.
The Trump administration challenged this order, arguing that it violated the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and conflicted with an Instrument of Transfer agreement established during World War II. This agreement, made when the airport was transferred to local control, ensured federal access to the facility for specific operations. A federal district court ruled in favor of the Trump administration, determining that Constantine’s directive exceeded constitutional limits and violated the longstanding agreement. In response, King County appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking to overturn the ruling.
But, the Ninth Circuit appeals court upheld the district court’s ruling. A three-judge panel concluded that the order not only infringed upon the Supremacy Clause by disrupting federal immigration enforcement but also breached the terms of the Instrument of Transfer. This decision solidifies the federal government’s authority to use the airport for operations related to national activities. The court concluded that the order not only breached federal law but also inflicted specific harm on the federal government. This included higher operational costs and the prevention of conducting deportation flights, which are crucial to ICE’s responsibilities.
