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D.C. Circuit May Lose Judge to 9th Circuit
The Recorder
November 14, 2007
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appears to be in line for another judge slot, but President Bush won't be permitted to fill it.
Compromise language buried in a bill dealing with court security would transfer a vacant position from the D.C. Circuit to the 9th Circuit, Senate Judiciary Committee aides say.
Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., first floated the transfer idea last spring. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., supported it, and it was in the Court Security Improvement Act that the Senate passed in April. The 9th Circuit's caseload is far greater than the D.C. Circuit's, Kyl and Feinstein argue, and thus deserves the additional seat.
The initial version passed by the House of Representatives did not include the 9th Circuit language, and during subsequent negotiations, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., objected to the possibility that Bush would be able to name another 9th Circuit judge.
So the current draft language would delay creation of the new seat until 2009 -- after Bush leaves office, according to Kyl spokesman Ryan Patmintra. If that draft language does not change, the Senate will then have to pass the entire compromise bill, after which it would require full House approval. Patmintra and others say staff are working to have the bill on the Senate floor "in the very near future."
The D.C. Circuit currently has 12 full-time seats.
The 9th Circuit has 28 full-time slots, but one, vacated by Judge Stephen Trott when he took senior status in 2004, is empty. Because Trott had moved from California to Idaho during his tenure, each state's representatives have staked a claim to the seat.
Some have speculated that the newly created post -- which Patmintra said would be a California seat -- would help smooth the way for an Idaho judge to replace Trott; the circuit would then have two permanent Idaho judges. A Feinstein spokesman, however, said the two issues are not linked.
The overall court security bill aims to beef up protection of federal judges, among other measures.
Another controversial part of the legislation involves a proposal by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to give senior circuit and senior district judges the same administrative powers as regular judges.
Yet some speculated that the language could be interpreted to mean senior circuit judges would be included on en banc panels. The 9th Circuit has 23 senior judges.
Specter, however, has apparently agreed to limit the scope of the proposed law so that it only applies to district court judges, not circuit court judges. The Pennsylvania senator had been responding to concerns raised by fellow Republican Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., committee aides say.
A spokesman for Specter's office declined to discuss Sessions' objections, and a spokesman for the Alabama Republican did not respond to a request for comment Monday morning.
