WASHINGTON (PNN) - February 9, 2017 - Nicknamed the “nutty ninth,” the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is known as easily the most liberal court in the federal system. Now, one day after it ruled against President Donald Trump’s temporary immigration freeze, it looks like it may be about to get a lot smaller. According to Fox News, a bill to break up the Ninth Circuit’s geographical purview was gaining some traction in Congress, with Arizona’s two Republican senators pushing legislation that would carve six states out of the San-Francisco-based court’s jurisdiction to create a new 12th Circuit.
The bill, which was introduced last month by Arizona Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain, would put the states of Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Arizona and Alaska in the new court. In an interview with Fox on Wednesday, Flake said the legislation’s aim isn’t political, but instead aimed at addressing long backlogs in the court.
“It represents 20% of the population - and 40% of the land mass is in that jurisdiction. It’s just too big,” Flake said. “We have a bedrock principle of swift justice and if you live in Arizona or anywhere in the Ninth Circuit, you just don’t have it.”
He said the average case in the Ninth Circuit takes 15 months to be handed down. “It’s far too long,” he said.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the Ninth Circuit stands so far outside the judicial mainstream. In 2012, the Supreme Court overturned 86% of the Ninth Circuit decisions that it reviewed.
Infamous decisions handed down by the “nutty ninth” include stating that the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance was an unconstitutional breach of the Establishment Clause and that the Second Amendment was not intended to allow private ownership of firearms. Both cases were later overturned.
In its entirely predictable ruling against Trump’s executive order on Thursday, the court displayed the same kind of brilliant logic it has in the past. It ruled that states suffer “concrete and particularized injury” if illegal aliens aren’t able to attend college classes (that one definitely took some juridical gymnastics) and that they could look to motive as opposed to the text of the law in making their decision.
“The problem is the judges in the Ninth Circuit, particularly the liberal judges, don’t want to give up any of their jurisdiction,” Flake said.
That’s why we have Congress.
