Is it time to split the Ninth Circuit?
The Wall Street Journal Law blog has a post this week about a proposal to split the Ninth Circuit. It quotes an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times by Vanderbilt Law School professor Brian Fitzpatrick:
The argument pushed by Fitzpatrick, who clerked both on the 9th Circuit and on the Supreme Court, is, to us at least, a novel one. He shows that, mathematically speaking, as a court grows larger, it is increasingly likely to issue extreme decisions. According to Fitzpatrick’s math: “if the 9th Circuit is anything like my hypothetical court, splitting it in half would save 60 to 120 appeals a year from being decided by panels with a majority of extreme judges.” And that, of course, would cut down on the number of “extreme” decisions.
Fitzpatrick’s position makes sense and he is certainly not the first one to suggest that the Ninth Circuit should be split. But I want to know why the first comment has nothing to do with the Ninth Circuit, but rather a warped comparison of California and Tennessee?
Posted on 12:54 PM by susan
