Court-Appointed Monitor’s Authority Upheld Over Sheriff’s Office

A district court didn’t overstep when it appointed a monitor over an Arizona sheriff’s office to reduce a backlog of compliance investigations related to the immigration enforcement practices of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a federal appeals court said Monday.

The monitor over the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office isn’t bound by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 53, which requires district court approval in order to compel any actions, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said. The district court vested the monitor with its inherent equitable powers when it assigned Constitutional Policing Authority responsibilities in its third supplemental permanent ...