Amending Title United States Code, to Authorize Holding Court for the Central Division of Utah in Moab and Monticello

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 8666, which would amend title 28 of the United States Code to authorize holding court in the Central Division of Utah in Moab and Monticello.

Adding two additional places to hold court in the Central Division of Utah would help ameliorate the consequential barriers to jury service and court attendance faced by the Federal courts in southeastern Utah. Moab and Monticello are geographically remote, making it difficult for Americans in those communities to readily exercise their Seventh Amendment rights.

We are here today because it makes no sense that litigants should incur dramatically increased travel time and administrative costs to seek justice just because someone lives far from the nearest big city.

Every day, the ratio of Federal judges to Americans decreases as our population continues to increase. That means that every day our constituents are a little less protected by the United States court system than they were the day before.

Legislation like this bill will help alleviate the burdens of our court system, and it is widely popular on both sides of the aisle. That is no small feat.

Congress first organized Utah as one judicial district in 1894 with one authorized judgeship. The State's steady growth prompted Congress to add four additional judgeships over the last 100-plus years and to increase the number of places to hold court in Utah. We are at another such inflection point today.

This bill before us has been requested by the local Federal district, as well as the Judicial Conference, to meet this moment. Small steps, such as passing this bill today, are positive moves in the right direction to help the people of Utah gain equal access to justice.

I thank Congresswoman Maloy and Congressman Curtis for sponsoring this legislation to improve the lives of the residents of Utah, and I encourage all of my colleagues to support the bill.

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Madam Speaker, Americans deserve accessible courts close to their homes. There is no reason litigants should incur dramatically increased travel time and administrative costs to seek justice just because someone lives far from the nearest large city.

Adding two additional places to hold court in the Central Division of Utah would make the system just a little bit fairer for the people who live there.

Madam Speaker, for that reason, I urge all Members to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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