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Partisan motives behind
proposed 9th Circuit breakup

THE ISSUE Proposals in Congress would split the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals into three circuits.

MOVES are resurfacing in Congress to split the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, by far the nation's largest appellate jurisdiction. If the design were meant to make an unwieldy operation more efficient, it would make sense. However, the proposed breakup is motivated solely by ideology and should be rejected.

Republicans have long cast the 9th Circuit as a liberal activist court at odds with the conservative agenda and -- more than any other appellate court -- the U.S. Supreme Court. It was lambasted for a decision that it was unconstitutional for schoolchildren to recite the full Pledge of Allegiance. Most recently, the high court overturned the 9th Circuit decision protecting state laws allowing the use of marijuana for medical use.

Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, proposed several years ago that California, Nevada and Arizona comprise the 9th Circuit, and a new circuit would include Hawaii, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Guam and the Mariana Islands, now part of the 9th. However, he proposed last year that California, Hawaii and the Pacific islands make up the 9th Circuit, and the seven other states be divided into two new circuits.

The retooled Simpson proposal passed the House last October by a mostly party-line vote, attached to a bill providing for newly named judges, but died in the Senate. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who put a hold on the measure, said the House "has essentially taken the new judges as hostages to a starkly partisan and controversial ploy."

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who plans to introduce the split appeals court bill in the Senate, said, "The situation is continuing to get worse for the 9th Circuit. It has by far the most cases per jurist, and it's just too large and too unwieldy."

Splitting the circuit into three parts would make it worse. Feinstein pointed out that under the Simpson-Ensign scheme, the new 9th Circuit of California, Hawaii and the Pacific islands would have 407 cases per circuit judge. Each of the two spinoff circuits would have 280 cases per judge.

"If there is a way to reduce the caseload of the 9th Circuit's judges in a fair and honest manner," Feinstein said, "I am open to considerations."

The caseload is not the Republicans' reason for splitting the 9th Circuit. By separating the other Western mainland states from California, they would create two circuits that are sure to have a more conservative penchant. The California circuit, in which Hawaii would be smothered, would be even more liberal than it already is.

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