WASHINGTON — The judges of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have called it "idiotic," "silly" and "very odd."
No, they were not referring to their usual nemesis, the U.S. Supreme Court. Rather, the target of their complaints was a plan by Senate Republicans to break up the West Coast's large and liberal-leaning judicial district.
In July, shortly after the 9th Circuit suffered a rapid-fire round of reversals in the high court, the Republicans pushed through the Senate a measure that would remove several Western states from the California-dominated appeals court.
Under this plan, which is pending in the House, the U.S. 12th Circuit Court of Appeals would be created to hear federal cases from a seven-state region stretching from Arizona to Alaska and Hawaii. Its judges would sit in Seattle or Phoenix.
Only California and Nevada would remain in the century-old 9th Circuit, which is based in San Francisco.
The House, whose leaders have favored buying time by studying the way the circuit courts are working, is scheduled to act on the bill this week.
Those pushing for the breakup usually cite good-government reasons, such as greater efficiency and collegiality among the judges.
The 9th Circuit is "huge and unwieldy," says Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.). By far the largest of the nation's regional appellate courts, the 9th Circuit covers an area with 50 million people, or nearly one in five Americans.
Typically, the 11 regional courts, which hear appeals of rulings in U.S. district courts, have 11 to 16 judges and meet regularly at their main courthouse. The 9th Circuit, however, has 28 judges who regularly hear arguments not only in San Francisco, but in Seattle, Portland, Pasadena and San Diego.
Despite the 9th Circuit's size, however, scholars who study the federal courts say it decides cases with roughly the same dispatch as the smaller circuit courts.
"The size of the circuit is not correlated with the speed of the dispositions," says University of Montana professor Carl Tobias. "There is a national problem of heavy caseloads [in the appellate courts], but it is certainly not unique to the 9th Circuit."
If the Senate Republicans truly seek to speed up the decisions coming from the 9th Circuit, says its chief judge, Procter Hug Jr. of Reno, they could best do so by accelerating their response to vacancies on the court. Though the 9th Circuit has 28 authorized judgeships, only 18 seats are filled with active judges.
