Future of 9th Circuit Under Review

Future of 9th Circuit Under Review
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

For many conservatives, the words "9th Circuit" mean more than just a federal appeals court in California. The words embody everything they think is wrong with liberal activism, West Coast politics and the judges who tried to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Those same conservatives think their new clout following President Bush's re-election may help put some weight behind a movement to split up the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (search), leaving the 9th in California, creating a new 12th Circuit for neighboring Idaho, Arizona, Montana and Nevada; and a new 13th Circuit for Washington, Alaska and Oregon.

"Almost everything is going to be affected by the election," said Kay Daly, who heads the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary (search), a conservative group working to get Bush's judicial nominations through the Senate. She said conservatives will be pushing hard to split up the 9th Circuit.

more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,139436,00.html

This story may not qualify as LBN as the language splitting the 9th Circuit was added to a House bankruptcy bill and passed in early October. At the moment, there is no action on any Senate bill containing the same language, thanks to Sen. Feinstein's hold.

If there is one policy that must be derailed at all costs in the next four years, it is the rewiring of the judicial circuit.

"Almost everything is going to be affected by the election."

Kay Daly and I probably don't agree on much, but this is a point of consensus. This last election was the most important of my lifetime, and we lost big. If the judiciary is allowed to go to shit, we may as well write off the whole modern project.

The ninth is enormous, essentially every state west of the Rockies. It's not really fair to the people seeking judicial relief to get caught up in its massive backlog and beuracracy.

And yes, I'm certain that if the idea came from a Republican, then there's most likely some twisted evil motive behind it.

The 9th is effective and doesn't need split.

"For the people" is only spin. Everything the repugs do is for their own benefit, not "for the people."

I just happened to be having a similar conversation with one of the attorneys who came here (Las Vegas) to monitor the polls. She told me that there was a massive backlog, and the circuit needed to be broken up. Just repeating what I'd heard anecdotaly; I know quite a bit about our local courts, and next to nothing about our federal ones.

or we will have no legal power left.

where is Hawaii is all of this?

... and it is slightly burdensome for the citizens of most of our western states to have to fly to San Francisco to appeal, the idea of splitting up the 9th Circuit is a very bad idea for us at this period in time. The most obvious and disastrous consequence would be that George Bush would get to appoint a whole slew (perhaps 24) of new appellate court judges (all of whom would then become potential SCOTUS judges). I'd prefer to wait until we have a Democratic President before doing this (provided we ever have another).

-Laelth


Edit:Laelth--clarity.

what really irks the Repubs isn't that their cases are overturned more often, because of course that is a myth created by the fact that they hear more cases...what really irks the Repubs is that they AREN'T OVERTURNED enough.

Adding a couple of whole new Circuits gives Bush the chance to appoint nothing but his brand of "justices" to it. The effect will be to redden Washington and Oregon, destroying the great bastions of progressive democracy, and to seriously shore up the (proposed) 12th--where Arizona and Nevada are gaining blueness every day with immigration.

And, Oh YEAH! It'll further reduce the power of the "reviled" 9th.

I don't know how, but we gotta fight this idea....

If this is really an attempt by Bush to pack the court so to speak there could be a big backlash. People dont like the ideas of courts messing with their lifes. Major chance to score points w/ the moderates. Be bi-partisan on it and then roast them on their policies. In a very nice and diplomatic manner of course ;)