A project tracking federal judicial nominations and courts.
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 Editorials and Opinion
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Hating on the Ninth Circuit: Funny But a Little Depressing (Wall Street Journal, 01/26/12)
Law Blog By Joe Palazzolo: "The idea of breaking the Ninth Circuit into pieces had been proposed in the past,... The idea fizzled.... about 70% of the Ninth Circuit’s cases come from California, so no matter how you slice it, the state is going to have a huge docket and outsized influence.
Kozinski is against splitting the Ninth and, in fact, supports combining some of the smaller circuits, particularly in the Northeast....once people take a deeper look, rather than relying on “uniformed commentary,” they’ll realize the Ninth isn’t going anywhere, he said....Other Ninth Circuit judges told Law Blog they were amused by all the attention the court was getting, but they said the animosity toward judges reflected a deep misunderstanding of how the federal courts operate, which they attributed to a lack of civics education. (Like, um, where would California appeals go?)
“Frankly, when I first heard the idea [of abolishing the court], I started laughing,” said one judge, who declined to be named. “But once you get over the funny the part, it’s a little depressing.”"
Which Newt is the good Newt? (Politico, 11/28/11)
Jeff Greenfield: "To be blunt, he often sounds like a blend of demagogue and bully. . . . The Gingrich as demagogue-bully has been on frequent display this cycle. . . . You don’t like the liberal opinions of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals? “Congress can say, ‘All right, in the future, the 9th Circuit can meet, but it will have no clerks.’ ‘By the way, we aren’t going to pay the electric bill for two years. And since you seem to be rendering justice in the dark, you don’t seem to need your law library either.’”
This time, how about a debate of substance? (Washington Post, 11/04/11)
George F. Will,Opinion Column: "Regarding domestic affairs, most of the candidates — Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney have admirably refrained — have been barking about courts and especially about the Supreme Court, a.k.a. “nine oligarchs in robes” (Rick Perry). Rick Santorum wants to “eliminate” the often liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, although it is not clear why that is necessary ... a fulminating Gingrich speaks of cutting funding for the 9th Circuit’s electricity, law clerks and library. Michele Bachmann and Paul think that Congress should restrict the jurisdiction of federal courts. The common theme of the candidates complaining about the courts is that, in Perry’s words, “activist” judges “deny us the right to live as we see fit.”
Indeed, courts sometimes do that. And conservatives sometimes applaud, vigorously and rightly. Perry did when the Supreme Court, properly enforcing the Second Amendment, said that the elected representatives of the residents of Washington, D.C., and Chicago could not do as they saw fit, and as a majority of their constituents probably favored, regarding gun control. Perry, Gingrich, Bachmann, Santorum and Paul ardently hope that five Supreme Court justices will be active enough to declare unconstitutional the individual health insurance mandate enacted by majorities in both houses of Congress."
Northwest doesn't need its own federal court circuit (Seattle Times [WA] , 10/13/06)
Op-Ed by Columnists Robert Lasnik & Robert H. Whaley, Contrary to the view that the Pacific Northwest deserves its own federal court circuit, we, the chief district judges in the two trial courts that serve the state of Washington, strongly support keeping the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals as is.
Splitting court may leave Latino judges out of mix (Arizona Republic, 10/13/06)
Richard Ruelas column: Splitting the Ninth Circuit may result in the absence of Latino judges in the new Twelfth Circuit, which would encompass Arizona. "That worries [9th Circuit Judge] Bea, who was nominated by President Bush in 2003 and has his office in San Francisco. A little-noticed issue, he says, is that Arizona would no longer have any Latino judges on its new court. All six Latinos on the current court would probably end up in the reconfigured 9th Circuit. ...The Hispanic National Bar Association opposes the split for this reason. Same with Los Abogados, the Hispanic attorney group."
Keep 9th Circuit intact (Register Guard [OR] , 09/28/06)
The march to split the Ninth Circuit is led by conservative lawmakers who want to take a chainsaw to the court because they believe it's dominated by "activist judges" who uphold environmental laws that rankle timber, mining and energy interests in the West.
Keep 9th Circuit Court of Appeals as one circuit (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 09/24/06)
Concerned about the possibility of Democrats gaining control of the U.S. Senate in the November elections, Republicans are engaged in a frantic effort to split the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals into two circuits.
A Bad Court-Splitting Plan (New York Times, 09/23/06)
Proponents of the Ninth Circuit Split claim that it will reduce work load, but in reality, its aim is not efficiency, but a conservative, anti-environmental agenda.
Keep It Together (Legal Times, 08/28/06)
Without a strong case of their own, supporters of a 9th Circuit split should defer to judges who oppose division.
Right wing goes after 9th circuit court (Seattle Post-Intelligencer [WA] , 05/15/06)
As days grow sunny and long in the West, efforts under cover of darkness in Washington, D.C., seek to split up a Western court that has upheld environmental laws and at times ruled against the federal government.
Scant support for splitting 9th circuit (Anchorage Daily News [AK] , 03/23/06)
Although by any measure the Ninth Circuit is the most productive federal appellate court in the nation, once again a push is under way to split the circuit in two, with the reorganized 9th Circuit covering only California and Hawaii and a new "12th Circuit" to cover Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Arizona.
Is the Ninth Circuit as liberal as some claim? (Pahrump Valley Times [NV], 12/07/05)
Dennis Myers column: "The court also has some insanely conservative judges, such as Jay Bybee of Nevada, who helped craft the Bush administration's permissive policy on torture."
A Court Divided (Register Guard [OR] , 11/28/05)
But make no mistake: Size and workload aren't the reasons critics want to bust the 9th into pieces. Conservatives have long regarded the 9th Circuit as dominated by "activist judges."
Splitting the court would be a mistake (Seattle Post-Intelligencer [WA] , 11/23/05)
One of the great strengths of the 9th Circuit is its diversity -- of judges, lawyers, people and opinions, including opinions about the court itself. We appreciate that diversity, but we respectfully disagree about splitting the court.
9th Circuit Split: House's Abusive Bypass (National Law Journal, 11/21/05)
Since President Ronald Reagan appointed O'Connor a quarter-century ago, members of Congress have perennially urged division of the 9th Circuit. One major argument involves the court's large size.
Don't Split the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco Chronicle [CA] , 11/20/05)
Republican forces are devising a peculiar legal exile for California: The GOP wants to take a Western-states federal appellate court, whose decisions infuriate conservatives, and chop it down by yanking California out of the grouping.
Splitting 9th Circuit would hurt Hawaii (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 11/18/05)
Splitting the Ninth Circuit would strand Hawaii as a stepchild of California in an appeals court even more liberal and cumbersome than what exists now.
Stealth attack on court (Mercury News [CA] , 11/17/05)
Republicans in Congress are taking the judiciary reform agenda too far by trying to ram through legislation to split up the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose rulings tend to be liberal.
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