Jeremiah Smith: “We have a circuit court, the Ninth Circuit, widely considered by most objective observers a renegade circuit that is out…”

“We have a circuit court, the Ninth Circuit, widely considered by most objective observers a renegade circuit that is out of the mainstream of American jurisprudence, a circuit court that has had decisions overturned by the Supreme Court nearly 90 percent of the time in the past 6 years. That is a very high percentage of the number of cases they have. It is the largest circuit in the country. It includes the 7-7 overturn rate in 1999-2000 and 27-28 reversal rate in 1996-1997. In fact, 17 of the decisions in 1996-1997 out of the 27 were overturned unanimously, which means both the liberal and the conservative Justices on the Supreme Court agree that these decisions were so outrageous, they had to be overturned. It is a court that routinely issues activist opinions, opinions that conflict with the basic American constitutional and legal principles. We have had a great debate on some of the outrageous decisions that have come down. As I have said, these two new nominees will, if approved, add to that court in a way that is going to continue to have cases overturned. These two judges, Ms. Berzon as well as Mr. Paez, have both indicated by their own track records they will be making similar decisions. I think this is most disturbing.”