Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague from Montana and for his point in particular. The charts make a very compelling case, but I think his point in particular about constraints--when things get too large, they become an organization that cannot function. I think when you look at the debate that has occurred previously about the Ninth Circuit, somehow we have gotten to the point where it is some kind of radical idea to split the Ninth Circuit. But if you look at the history of our country, the radical idea is actually not splitting the Ninth Circuit. The outlier position is not to take a court either that has this many cases pending or that controls this much of the population and not do something about it. The history of this body, starting with the Judiciary Act of 1789 that created three circuit courts: Eastern, Middle, and Southern--only a few years later, Congress acted again--in 1802, a mere 13 years later--and Congress doubled the number of circuit courts to six. What we have seen throughout our history is when this kind of situation exists where one court has an enormously oversized population, Congress--as my colleague from Montana mentioned--acts in a bipartisan manner, and they act for the sole reason to make sure all Americans are getting effective administration of justice.…”