Political Quotes

“Mr. President, one of the most important elements of the rule of law is the promise of swift access to the courts, but that promise has been broken in my home State of Arizona. That is because Arizona falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, a circuit that is both oversized and overworked. With the jurisdiction encompassing 13 districts spread across nine States and 2 U.S. territories, the Ninth Circuit covers 1 in 5 Americans. It hears roughly 12,000 appeals each year. The next busiest circuit doesn't even hear 9,000, and for the thousands of cases under its consideration, the average turnaround time exceeds 15 months. Now, if excessive delays weren't bad enough, it turns out the Ninth Circuit is overturned by the Supreme Court 77 percent of the time when the Supreme Court grants cert--77 percent of the time. That is obviously higher than any other court. So not only is the court excruciatingly slow, but in many instances it is simply wrong. The court, itself, is unusually large. It has 29 authorized judgeships. That is 12 more than the next largest circuit. The Ninth Circuit is so big that it can't even rehear cases as a whole body, like every other appeals court does. Instead, cases are reheard with limited en banc; these are panels of 11 judges each. That means that only one-third of its judges are deciding law for the entire court--only one-third.…”