An immigration ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is quite literally laden with mischief. The word appears nine times, including a reference to "Harry Potter," in a 115-page ruling reflecting how Trump judges are changing the court's dynamic.

The perpetrator of the alleged mischief is not one of the parties in the ruling, which attracted two concurrences and two dissents that did not squarely follow partisan lines. Trump-appointee Judge Lawrence VanDyke said the mischief maker is none other than the court itself.