Adam Schiff: “first, there were the court-stripping amendments, now there are the court-splitting amendments. What will come next, the…”

“first, there were the court-stripping amendments, now there are the court-splitting amendments. What will come next, the court-flogging amendments? Why is this being sought? Well, it is argued that the amendment to split the courts, to split the circuit, is an amendment out of the necessity of improving the timeliness of the actions within the Ninth Circuit. Critics have purportedly claimed the Ninth Circuit is too big and prevents litigants from receiving timely legal redress. In the period since 1984, when the court was last authorized new judgeships, there has been significant growth of the court's caseload. It has more than doubled. But interestingly enough, both the Fifth and the 11th Circuits have experienced similar increases in caseload growth; however, no divisions of those circuits have been contemplate or proposed. So why is it only the Ninth Circuit? In fact, the Ninth Circuit terminated more than 10,000 cases in calendar year 2002, and has increased its efficiency year after year due to the continuing examination of case processing procedures and constant innovation. This has been accomplished despite unfilled vacancies. If the Congress and those that offer this amendment were truly concerned with timeliness, we would have filled those vacancies a long time ago. So then what is the basis of this court-splitting, circuit-splitting amendment?”