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(Repeating Nov. 9 story with no changes)
By Andrew Chung
Nov 9 (Reuters) - A liberal-leaning California-based federal appeals court that has often ruled against President Donald Trump dealt him another setback this week in a major immigration case and soon could be asked to weigh in on a pipeline project he has championed.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, has been a thorn in Trump's side since he took office last year and has drawn the Republican president's ire for its decisions in high-profile cases.
His latest setback before the 9th Circuit came on Thursday when a three-judge panel rejected his bid to rescind a program launched by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, that protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants brought into the country as children.
The 9th Circuit has handed him defeats on his travel ban targeting people from several Muslim-majority countries and his bid to withhold federal funds from so-called sanctuary cities that limit cooperation on immigration enforcement. It also is set to rule on the administration's appeal of a judge's order blocking Trump's move to put restrictions on transgender people serving in the U.S. military.
The 9th Circuit would hear any appeal by Trump's administration of the ruling late on Thursday by a federal judge in Montana blocking construction for environmental reasons of the Keystone XL pipeline project that is designed to carry heavy crude oil from Canada to the United States.
The Justice Department said on Friday it is reviewing the Keystone XL ruling to decide its next step. TransCanada Corp said it remains committed to building the $8 billion, 1,180-mile (1,900-km) pipeline.
"The 9th Circuit is an easy punching bag for Trump because not only has it been traditionally liberal but California is its beating heart, and we all know how Trump fares in California," said Barry McDonald, a law professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu. "He probably sees much of the West Coast as a nemesis for him."
California, the most populous U.S. state, is a liberal bastion that is unfriendly political territory for Trump.
'A FAIR DECISION'
The president regularly belittles the 9th Circuit, as he did on Friday after the court's ruling preserving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
"The DACA will now hopefully go to the Supreme Court where it will be given a fair decision," Trump told reporters.
Trump already has appointed two justices to the nine-member Supreme Court, solidifying its 5-4 conservative majority.