House votes to break up San Francisco based-9th Circuit appeals court

IANAL. How does that differ from Roosevelt's attempt at packing the Supreme Court in 1937?

Simple. It's different because they said so. And whoever goes along with that gets what they deserve.

Once again, a 9th Circuit smackdown, as SCOTUS unanimously votes to overturn that nutty court in a San Diego cop porn case.

With thanks to gmg for reminding me about this case.

Summary reversal from the Supremes is every appellate lawyer's dream and my colleagues representing the SDPD are elated over this decision.

I'll settle for being pleased to be among those leading the charge to break up the largest and most pompous of all the CCAs into a more manageable and responsive one. What really galls my colleagues and I who defend the State of California against bogus inmate litigation is the 9th Circuit's overreaching bias on inmates' behalf. A cadre of permissive leftist - passing liberal, mind you - judges routinely crafts new doctrines that keep the tide of inmate litigation permanently high, and rewards the jailhouse lawyers who represent these convicts while penalizing legitimate state efforts to implement what Congress did when it passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act back in '96, which the Ninth Circuit has been bucking ever since.

Most recently, the Niners decided that the way to ease the burden of excessive inmate litigation was to ... appoint more pro bono lawyers to represent them! In soliciting great ideas for solutions such as this one, the CA9 was careful not to include anyone with a real interest in the matter - like the Attorneys General of any of the states severely impacted by these inane claims - in the process. Our office's efforts to give formal input were ignored, reducing us to having almost no voice at all in the process.

Until Congress' next term, that is. I can't wait to see the most arrogant of courts get its comeuppance come January before Senator Specter and his Committee, and at long last see a broken court broken down to its functioning components and rebuilt to reflect the rule of law, not misplaced personal and political whimsy.

gmg, the 9th should be broken up if for no other reason that its workload is just way overboard. To have the 9th circuit include all the states it presently includes is just insane.

Of course, there is another way to curb the problem of the 9th loonies--dissolve their office. This rare but constitutional power of Congress and the president was used by Jefferson when he wiped out over 50% of the nation's Federalist-leaning federal judges. He got sick of their obstructionism and activism that he got Congress to simply dissolve many of their judgeships.

Perhaps it's time that those arrogant judgislators on the 9th circuit be reminded of who makes the laws and who doesn't.

MIB, who says the internet isn't instructive? So far, I've learned two things this week: MacArthur's shameful abandonment of our fellow Allies in the Philippines and now this EXCELLENT bit of history about Jefferson's court unpacking plan. Time to dust off this device and bring it and "the nuclear option" to bear upon recalcitrant Senators and judges - provided we can graft enough backbone onto GOP Senators (spell, HATCH) who've so far not shown any. :cool:

Except that with leaders like Frist et. al., don't expect the Republicans to know how to lead. I've always been amazed how Republicans, at least in the Senate, have no idea how to run things. They run the Senate as if the Democrats are still in control (effectively they are). Republicans are too wimpy to be partisan. Democrats have been extremely partisan and have been effective in wielding their power in the Senate. When the GOP took over, they didn't take control.

Republicans in the Senate often remind me of a bunch of kids in a room left alone to do a project. They run around acting like idiots, not making any firm decisions, instead capitulating to those making demands (Democrats).

With wimps like Lott and now Frist as their leaders, Democrats shouldn't worry about much.

MIB, at least it's not as bad as it was when the GOP first regained some semblance of power in '94. Then, the excuse that they'd been out of power for so long that they didn't know how to wield it made some, albeit not much, sense,* but now, a decade later, "that dog won't hunt."

I'll never forget Trent Lott's smarmy presentation of a gavel to CJ Rehnquist at the conclusion of Bill Clinton's impeachment trial in the Senate. In doing so as he did, he effectively reduced "the world's greatest deliberative body" to the status of a rural Rotary Club.
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* Cf. George Sanders to Marilyn Monroe in "All About Eve:" "You have a point, an entirely ridiculous one, but a point nevertheless."

Another reversal--gee, there's a surprise--of the 9th Circus, gmg, albeit on a narrow issue;