Column for E.V. Tribune on splitting the Ninth Circuit [“Break it up,” March 9, 2008]
By Sen. Chuck Gray
Eighteen years ago, on the advice of his attorney, accused murderer Maxwell Hoffman refused the state of Idaho’s plea deal of a life sentence in prison and instead went to trial. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death for helping murder a government informant.
But Hoffman found a friend in the infamous Ninth Circuit Court. In July of 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that Hoffman got bad legal advice and gave Idaho the option of giving Hoffman the same plea deal he had turned down in 1989, or letting him go.
Under that logic, all defendants should turn down every plea deal, spend enormous state resources to go to trial, and if the defendant loses his case, he can always take the plea deal he was originally offered. Now that’s justice San Francisco style.
Thankfully the Supreme Court has decided to review the case, but the Ninth Circuit Court’s lunacy goes on. Remember, this is the same court that ruled the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional due to the words “one nation under God.” The Supreme Court quickly overturned this.
But the Ninth Circuit Court is notorious for having its decisions overturned. In fact, this court is the most overturned of any of the circuit courts. Sometimes the rate of reversals can reach 100 percent.
In the 2002-03 Supreme Court term, 10 of the 28 criminal cases accepted by the Supreme Court were from the Ninth Circuit. All 10 were overturned. And with the Ninth Circuit’s annual caseload of approximately 4,000, one might wonder how many other cases SHOULD have been reversed.
In the course of that year, more than one-third of the Supreme Court’s time and consideration regarding criminal law was spent fixing defective rulings from the Ninth.
To add insult to injury, the Ninth Circuit is the largest circuit court in the nation. Its perverse logic affects one-fifth of the nation’s population. It is more than double the size of the majority of the circuit courts.
The Ninth Circuit is too big, too liberal and does not reflect the values of most Arizonans. Citizens of our state deserve a circuit court that will rule fairly on the issues most important to us. In order to boost efforts to split the Ninth Circuit Court, I have introduced legislation urging Congress to divide it into a new Twelfth Circuit Court that would hear Arizona and other states’ appeals.
I am not the first to make this plea and will certainly not be the last until Congress fixes this overloaded and poorly representative court. Much has changed since the creation of the Ninth Circuit in 1891 when it contained only 3 percent of the nation’s population. The court now includes one-fifth of our country’s population with nine states, one territory and one commonwealth. This, the largest circuit, takes more than 15 months to decide cases, exceeding the national average from notice of appeal to disposition.
Consistency among the court’s decisions is also a problem. Hearing 21.7 percent of all federal circuit appeals in the nation, Ninth Circuit Court judges are too busy to read all of the court’s other opinions. With so many divergent rulings among the Ninth Circuit judges, the court seems to send mixed messages. This severely frustrates the development of stable circuit law. Ultimately, these structural flaws affect case outcomes, which is largely due to the court’s size. Congress needs to act so our citizens no longer have to suffer the consequences of such an inefficient court.
Another issue that is hard to deny is that the Ninth Circuit’s rulings do not reflect the vales of Arizona, let alone those of most Americans. Rather, they seem to reflect the ideals of Los Angeles and Hollywood. We can no longer allow the liberal views of west coast states like California to affect justice in Arizona. Arizonans perceive this federal court as a remote institution that is unfamiliar with the problems and points of view of Arizona. Public confidence has truly been eroded. Our citizens deserve a court that reflects the values of Arizona.
The Circuit Court of Appeals Restructuring and Modernization Act of 2007, introduced in the U.S. Senate, is another bill that would split the Ninth Circuit. It was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee in February 2007, but no further action was ever taken. Congress cannot keep ignoring this issue.
The time to split the court is long overdue. If Congress acts, it will go a long way towards restoring citizens’ confidence in our judicial system.
Chuck Gray is a state senator representing District 19 in Mesa. He is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
