Idaho Republican U.S. Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch have reintroduced the Judicial Reorganization Act that would split the current Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and create a new Twelfth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Idaho Senator Jim Risch
According to a news release from Senator Crapo’s Office, currently, western states are subjected to an overly encumbered, inconsistent and slow judiciary. This stems from having the largest circuit court in the nation in terms of geography, population and workload. The Ninth Circuit has jurisdiction over 40 percent of the landmass of the United States and one-in-five Americans. One fifth of all pending federal appeals and 56 percent of all immigration cases in the nation are filed within the Ninth Circuit. With 29 appellate judges, the court also has more than double the average number of authorized judgeships among the 13 circuits.
Additionally, the population and geographic expanse the Ninth Circuit covers have experienced explosive growth since the court’s creation in 1891. The Senators say creating a new circuit would solve the inefficiencies associated with the size of the Ninth Circuit and expand many Americans’ access to justice.
The Judicial Reorganization Act would divide the current Ninth Circuit into two new circuits: A new Ninth Circuit covering California, Guam and Hawai’i; and a Twelfth Circuit with jurisdiction over Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
The legislation would also increase the total number of judges in the two circuits to 31–adding one appellate judge to each court, as requested by the United States Judicial Conference. Eighteen appellate judges would serve in the Ninth Circuit and 13 appellate judges in the Twelfth Circuit.
The legislation would authorize the appropriation of funds needed to provide additional court facilities and implement the change.
