ABA Weighs In On Proposed Break Up of Ninth Circuit
The American Bar Association, a group that counts more than 400,000 attorneys as members, voted through its House of Delegates on Monday to fight Congressional efforts to split the Ninth Circuit into two courts. The Ninth Circuit is a federal appellate court with jurisdiction over federal matters in Arizona, California, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The court has 29 authorized judgeships, significantly higher than the next closest circuit, the Fifth, at 15. The Ninth Circuit needs all of those judges (although 4 spots are currently vacant and awaiting a presidential appointment) to manage the court’s massive caseload; it issues more published and unpublished opinions than any other jurisdiction. It heard more than 12,000 appeals in 2015 alone. With such a high caseload and incredible diversity of judges, it is no wonder that some members of Congress are calling to divide the court.
Just this year, members of Congress have filed no less than five separate bills seeking to break up the Ninth Circuit and establish a new Twelfth Circuit. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R- AK) reasoned that the Ninth’s overwhelming size caused it to take shortcuts to keep pace, referring to such measures as “fast food justice.” President Trump even voiced his support at splitting up the court, but some of his motivation might come from the Ninth Circuit’s repeated overturning of the President’s travel ban. As the economies of west coast states and their neighbors become more intertwined in the technology and natural resource management industries, dividing those states into separate jurisdictions could create issues of legal continuity in economic development matters.
The logistical and fiscal nightmare of creating a new federal appellate court, coupled with a crowded legislative agenda in Congress, could push any debate on the Ninth Circuit to the distant future. As it is, the Ninth Circuit has survived calls to divide it up since Jimmy Carter stacked the court with 15 new judges in the 1970s. With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) relying on the Ninth Circuit as one of its favorite forums, the fate of the Ninth could also influence the CFPB’s enforcement efforts in the future.
