A liberal-majority appeals court in California handed the Trump administration a victory by blocking a lower court's ruling that ordered the State Department to open its application pool for the 2027 Diversity Visa lottery, which admits roughly 55,000 immigrants from low-immigration countries each year.

In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta requiring the lottery pool to be opened after Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a notice in November delaying the program's acceptance of new applications in order to "implement certain changes," but the application period never opened.

A month later, the State Department ordered an indefinite pause on issuing diversity visas after a Portuguese national who was issued a lottery visa in 2017 committed a mass shooting at Brown University, killing two people and injuring nine others. The shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was also tied to the murder of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor two days after the Brown University shooting.

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The Ninth Circuit has been a perennial thorn in the side of President Donald Trump, having ruled against key portions of Trump's 2017 executive order restricting travel from predominantly Muslim countries and blocked a policy barring immigrants from being eligible for asylum if they crossed the southern border between ports of entry.

However, the appeals court ruled that the lower court's preliminary injunction could not be enforced, finding that the immigration law firm Red Eagle, which represents individuals going through the visa lottery process, did not have standing to sue the federal government. The appeals court ruled that the program was intended to "encourage immigration, not generate revenue for law firms."

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The court wrote, "If Red Eagle Law were allowed to allege standing based upon its hypothetical or conjectural collateral injury, we would be opening the floodgates, allowing all lawyers to ‘roam the country in search of governmental wrongdoing.’"

However, the court made clear that its ruling was based on procedural grounds and did not weigh whether the State Department failed to follow the law.

"We do not endorse the Department’s failure to open the lottery registration period," the court wrote.

Abhishek Kambli, a former federal prosecutor and partner at Holtzman Vogel, said the decision by the liberal court was a "very easy call" in a post on X.

"Here, the plaintiff was a law firm not bringing a claim on behalf of someone in the diversity visa lottery but on behalf of the firm itself," Kambli wrote. "The district court should have never gone beyond standing but CA9 corrected this one."

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President Donald Trump has been vocal about his opposition to the Visa Lottery Program for years. During his January 2018 State of the Union address, he called for ending the program, arguing that visas should be issued based on merit.

Earlier that same month, Trump said during a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers at the White House that lottery visas allow the "worst of the worst" to come into the country.

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"They call it ‘visa lottery,’ I just call it ‘lottery.’ But countries come in and they put names in a hopper," Trump said. "They’re not giving you their best names; common sense means they’re not giving you their best names."

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Countries eligible for the 2026 lottery included Afghanistan, New Zealand, Ecuador, Iran, Uganda, Somalia and Russia. The program was designed to create an additional pathway for people seeking visas who may not qualify through traditional channels, such as employment- or family-based immigration.

A Republican member on the House Armed Services Committee told Fox News Digital ahead of the midterm elections that the Trump administration has a key decision to make on the future of the U.S.-Iran war as "continuing to do just enough not to lose, but not enough to win, is not OK."

Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., made the comments as Vice President JD Vance declared during a Fox News town hall on Thursday that he promises "Donald Trump is not going to let Iran become a forever war." Official and military sources also told Fox News this week that movements are being made in the Middle East to give the president options if he decides to resume strikes against Iran.

"I share my constituents and many Americans' perspective that I'm very, very frustrated that this war is not over. The way that ultimately this administration went about conducting the war, it needed to execute it and wrap it up in a very short period of time, and we are not there yet," said Harrigan, who is running for re-election in North Carolina's 10th Congressional District.

"That being said, Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. And so at the end of the day, I do believe that this was a war that was inevitable at some point, but the party that's in power and the administration that decided to pull the trigger on it is responsible for the outcome, and they're responsible for the outcome in a very short period of time. Otherwise, things get really, really difficult," Harrigan continued. "And I think we've been seeing that, both from a political perspective but also from a policy perspective."

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"And so while the administration needs to wrap this up, we are not in a forever war, but we need to make sure that we're not... we keep the mission the same. We accomplish the mission. And we do what it takes to either win or come home," Harrigan added. "And that binary decision has to get made by this administration."

Harrigan told Fox News Digital that Trump "needs to involve Congress" if he chooses to renew military action against the Iranian regime.

"I think that that will long-term set the course for the country to be resolute in affirming and actually executing and accomplishing the objectives that exist. Because look, like it or not, Congress is responsible for the funding arm of the government. And if they run out of money to accomplish the objectives, then that is not good for our strategic interests," he said. "So, in my opinion, Congress and the White House need to be very closely involved in making the next set of decisions that exist for this conflict."

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"And we do need to make sure, again, that we either do what it takes to actually win in Iran, or we need to take the three out of five objectives that we've accomplished and say that, you know what? We've largely accomplished our strategic objectives. We've got more work to do over the long-term that's going to require consistent and persistent over the horizon monitoring of their nuclear program. And we're going to have to mow the lawn every now and again, and everybody's got to realize that, and leave, right?" Harrigan continued, mentioning how the U.S. has prevented Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and eliminated Tehran's missile and drone production.

"But we've got to choose one of those two options because continuing to do just enough not to lose, but not enough to win, is not OK," he said. "It's not OK for the American people, it's not OK for our troops, it's not OK for geopolitical and economic stability. And it does not serve the long-term strategic interests of the United States. So it's time to choose."

Harrigan, a Green Beret and business entrepreneur, is running for re-election on Tuesday in North Carolina. He is facing off against Democrat challenger Ashley Bell, a physician associate, and Libertarian candidate Steve Feldman, who ran unsuccessfully for the seat two years ago.

As a current member of Congress, Harrigan told Fox News there is "no question" the Republican Party's House majority is at stake heading into Election Day.

"Whoever has 218 votes gets to chart the course of the direction of the House, the work that its committees do. And in particular, as it relates to the Trump administration, whether or not President Trump's going to get impeached," he added.

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"What this boils down to is the future direction of the country. Are we going to be stuck looking backwards instead of actually looking forwards, dealing with the actual business of the country and the free world, or are we going to be stuck in some sort of a Democratically-led nightmare that is simply going to be obstructionist to the conservative principles and values that people voted for in 2024?" Harrigan asked. "That's what's on the line this election cycle."

Alaska Republican gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson said she was not surprised Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, crossed party lines to endorse her Democratic opponent in the governor's race.

Wilson told Fox News Digital that Murkowski endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins on Tuesday because the two share similar views on taxation and Alaska's oil industry.

"It should not surprise anyone. They're two peas in a pod, and I can tell you that as governor," Wilson told Fox News Digital.

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"It doesn't surprise me that she is supporting the just keep taxing JKT," Wilson continued. "You know the guy that supports an increase in income tax, the guy that wants to double the fuel tax here in Alaska, the guy that has said ‘Hey I’m gonna come after the oil companies,' the guy that does not support paying out a full permanent fund dividend."

In August, during a candidate forum hosted by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, Kreiss-Tomkins said he believes "broad-based tax and revenues of that nature are likely going to be necessary to balance our budget."

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Wilson argued that Kreiss-Tomkins' economic policies align with Murkowski's, accusing both politicians of supporting what she described as "socialist policies."

The Republican candidate said she has been "sounding the alarm since 2010 about the fact that she was [subscribing] to extreme liberal socialist policies," referring to Murkowski.

Wilson also said she would not "assign motive" to Murkowski's decision to endorse Kreiss-Tomkins, though she did not rule out the possibility that the endorsement was intended as a rebuke of President Donald Trump.

Trump endorsed Wilson on Oct. 13, days before Murkowski announced her support for Kreiss-Tomkins.

Murkowski has opposed several legislative priorities backed by Trump during the 119th Congress, including the SAVE America Act, which would impose additional proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration.

In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in July, Murkowski wrote that "as written, the SAVE America Act isn’t a simple fix to safeguard elections, as proponents claim. It would impose costly new barriers and prevent some, perhaps many, from voting, while also creating chaos before the November elections."

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In January, Murkowski joined Senate Democrats in voting in favor of the War Powers Resolution, which failed but could have limited Trump’s ability to take military action against Iran.

The president then took to Truth Social to state that Murkowski "should never be elected to office again."

If elected governor, Wilson pledged in her video interview that she would continue to "sound the alarm" about Murkowski, whom she described as a "so-called Republican senator."

The candidate also characterized Murkowski's political positions as "absolutely terrible."

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Murkowski and Kreiss-Tomkins did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.