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 21-year-old college hockey captain who dreamed of becoming a police officer was killed in a wrong-way crash involving a Mexican national who repeatedly entered the United States illegally after previously being removed, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Ryan O'Shea, a senior at the University of New Haven, was driving south on Interstate 91 in North Haven late Oct. 16 when a Chevrolet Silverado traveling the wrong way slammed head-on into his Honda Accord, Connecticut State Police said.

According to the State Police accident summary, 31-year-old Guillermo Carmona-Lopez of Bridgeport was driving the Silverado.

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The crash sent O'Shea's car into another lane, where it was struck by a Jeep before moving onto the right shoulder and being hit by a third vehicle.

O'Shea suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. Carmona-Lopez was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries, while three other people suffered minor injuries.

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DHS told Fox News Digital that Carmona-Lopez entered the U.S. illegally multiple times despite previously being removed and receiving a final order of removal.

"In May 2013, Border Patrol arrested Guillermo Carmona-Lopez, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, after he illegally entered the country," a DHS spokesperson said. "Carmona-Lopez was issued an expedited removal and was removed from the country."

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Carmona-Lopez then illegally reentered the country near the Rio Grande Valley and was arrested again by Border Patrol that same month, DHS said.

"Carmona-Lopez was issued a final order of removal on May 30, 2013," the spokesperson said. "He then reentered the country at an unknown time and place."

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O'Shea, of Stony Point, New York, was studying criminal justice with a concentration in police science at the University of New Haven and served as senior captain of the men's club hockey team.

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He interned with the New York City Police Department over the summer and hoped to join the NYPD after graduation before eventually pursuing a career with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the university said.

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"Ryan wanted to go into public service in order to help others," his academic advisor, Lorenzo Boyd, said in a university tribute. "He was engaging in the classroom and will be missed greatly."

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Devin Bertrand, general manager of the men's ice hockey club, remembered O'Shea as someone whose "infectious personality lit up our locker room the moment he walked in."

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O'Shea also served as president of his Kappa Sigma fraternity chapter, which said he was returning from a hockey game when the crash occurred.

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"Ryan was not only a great leader, but he was a caring friend to anyone around him," the fraternity said in a social media tribute. "He always knew how to light up a room and make people laugh, no matter the time."

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The State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Squad responded to the scene and is assisting with the investigation, which remains ongoing.

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"Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, if you break the law, you will face the consequences," the DHS spokesperson said. "Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S."