Creating Additional Federal Court Judgeships

CREATING ADDITIONAL FEDERAL COURT JUDGESHIPS -- (House of Representatives - October 05, 2004)

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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Chairman, I rises today not only as a member of the Committee on the Judiciary but as chair of the California Democratic Delegation to say we need more judges, but we do not need to split the Ninth Circuit. It is important to know that California's Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes the proposed split as does former Republican Governor Pete Wilson. Our two Democratic Senators, DIANNE FEINSTEIN and BARBARA BOXER, also oppose the split, and the American Bar Association and the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers also oppose the split. Even the judges of the Ninth Circuit oppose the split by a 30-to-9 margin.

According to the Administrative Office of the Courts, the start-up cost for such a split would be $131 million, and there would be an additional $21.7 million in extra personnel costs every year.

Why would we waste these millions? The Ninth Circuit is not broken. Although the Ninth Circuit contains the largest number of judges of any Federal circuit, the ratio of published opinions to the number of judgeships is well within what is applicable to other circuits. It is also worth noting that the circuit judges in the Ninth Circuit take only 1.4 months to decide cases following argument, while the national average is 2.1 months.

Despite all the rhetoric, the Ninth Circuit's reversal rates compare favorably with every other circuit. So I would urge my colleagues to oppose and vote down the amendment to split the circuit. We do need these judges. But join the Republican governor and the judges and the taxpayers, who do not want to fund this waste, in turning down this ill-conceived amendment to split the Ninth Circuit so that we can move forward and get those judges that we need.