Pete Sessions: “The New York Times had an article some time ago, saying this: The Ninth Circuit, which sits in San Francisco, remains…”

“The New York Times had an article some time ago, saying this: The Ninth Circuit, which sits in San Francisco, remains the country's most liberal appeals court, and there is some evidence that the Supreme Court's conservative majority-- I would say it is a moderate to conservative majority-- views it as something of a rogue circuit, especially on questions of criminal law and even more particularly on the death penalty. That is from the New York Times, which certainly is not a conservative organ, particularly on legal matters. I think they are misunderstanding the importance of a lot of legal matters, frankly, but that is a comment they made, their observation. That is why the Ninth Circuit has been reversed so regularly. As a matter of fact, I will mention a little later in my remarks--I believe in 1996-1997--there were 17 reversals in that year of the Ninth Circuit by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court. In other words, the liberal and conservative members of the Supreme Court, in 17 out of 27 cases reversed, unanimously agreed the Ninth Circuit was wrong.”