Reply #103: Wrong. Each of the Circuit Courts covers a large region, and while interpretations can vary....

[Hekate]

... if the argument continues, it is then up to the US Supreme Court to make the final determination.

The 9th Circuit is known for being liberal, and also covers an uncommonly large territory. For those reasons, conservatives would like to see it split up, thus diminishing the impact of its rulings.

Hekate
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http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Splitting_the_9th_Circuit

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is by far the largest Circuit in the U.S. Appellate Court system. Critics say that it is too liberal and often overturned. It is the most liberal of the Circuits in its decisions. Its reversal rate in the U.S. Supreme Court is actually lower than the average circuit -- 9th Circuit cases often appear in the U.S. Supreme Court simply because the 9th Circuit is larger than any other circuit. The 9th Circuit has 28 judges now, compared to 17 in the next largest circuit, has two and a half times the population of the average circuit, and handles roughly 20% of all federal appeals in the United States. The political leanings of the 9th Circuit (which infuriate conservatives and give liberals hope) has turned a basically administrative problem (deciding how many judicial circuits the federal courts need) into an intensely political football, with Democrats supporting a single district whose rulings they view as good, over a wider area, while Republicans hope to carve out new conservative judicial strongholds by breaking up the District.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 205-194 on October 5, 2004 to split the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the largest in the United States, into three parts. Hawaii, Guam, the Northern Marianas and California would remain in the 9th Circuit (based in San Francisco and Los Angeles). One of the new Circuits would be the 12th including Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and and Montana (based in Las Vegas and Phoenix). The other would be the 13th including Washington, Oregon and Alaska (based in Portland and Seattle). The bill would also create 58 new judgeships (7 in the new 9th Circuit designed by its Republican sponsors to make that court less liberal). The bill, S. 878 (with amendments incorporating HR 4247) failed in the U.S. Senate.
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