AP: House move to split 9th Circuit opposed

[question everything]

House move to split 9th Circuit opposed

ASSOCIATED PRESS

November 10, 2005

WASHINGTON – The Republican chairman and the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee announced their opposition yesterday to a House GOP move to fast-track a breakup of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

House Republicans are including a split of the San Francisco-based court, which covers nine Western states, in a budget-reduction bill that could win House approval as soon as today and would be immune from Senate filibuster. The 9th Circuit measure wasn't in the Senate's version of the budget bill, and opposition from key senators could keep it out of the final version of the bill crafted by House and Senate negotiators.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., declared their opposition to the House move in a letter released by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a staunch opponent to breaking up the court. "The reorganization of appellate circuits is a major policy initiative and would impact the system of justice for millions of Americans. The issue is squarely under the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee and any budgetary issues are merely incidental," Specter and Leahy wrote to the leaders of the Senate Budget Committee.

More..

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051110/news_1n10ninth.html

[William769]

1. Good!

[musette_sf]

3. what you said!

yeah, right, THEIR side aren't "judicial activists" My ass.

[HockeyMom]

4. Let the Bible Belt HAVE their own Fundie, Activitist Judges

so they can leave the rest of us ALONE.

[Ignacio Upton]

2. They talk about "activist judges"

so they can use their talkingpoint as an excuse to mess around with the courts.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Wow! Have some Republicans decided the cabal has gone too far?

n/t

[Lexingtonian]

6. now there's a polite letter telling the House leadership to FOAD

The House incidently withdrew that spending bill just a few hours ago, so the matter is moot for the time being.

It probably would be wise to split the 9th Circuit in two as a logistical matter, but rather than splitting it logically along cultural and geographic lines into a Northwest and a Southwest circuit, these morons essentially want a gerrymander.

[rodeodance]

7. House Repugs are blantantly crazed!