This editorial first appeared in the Ketchikan Daily News:
Sen. Dan Sullivan remains rightly persistent when it comes to the Ninth Circuit Court.
Sullivan, along with Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines, introduced two bills this month to restructure the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Their concern is that the court is too large and, as a result, cannot properly handle its caseload.
One bill — the Circuit Court of Appeals Restructuring and Modernization Act — would remove Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington from the 9th Circuit and place them in a newly established 12th Circuit. California, Guam, Hawaii and the Northern Mariana Islands would remain in the 9th Circuit.
The other bill — the Federal Courts of Appeals Modernization Act — would create a commission to study the Court of Appeals system to quickly dispose of the existing 9th Circuit’s caseload.
Sullivan served as a judicial law clerk for the 9th Circuit.
“The population of the 9th Circuit is nearly 85 percent bigger than the next largest circuit and covers 40 percent of our country’s land mass,” he says. It is simply too large, its scope is too wide, and it has long passed its ability to provide equal access to justice under the law.”
The court has had to use shortcuts to manage its workload, according to Sullivan.
The next-largest appeals court serves only 34.8 million Americans. That court, the 5th Circuit, has 5,593 cases pending compared to the 9th Circuit’s 13,334. The 9th also has the longest average from appeal to termination of all appeals courts.
Two previous studies indicated changes are necessary with the 9th Circuit.
If it requires three, and it appears to, then get it done and act on its advice. It’s way past time for relief for the 9th Circuit and a 12th Circuit.
