Sponsors
The bill aims to improve appellate access and reduce caseloads by reorganizing circuits and authorizing new judges/locations, but those operational and access gains come with meaningful costs, administrative disruption, and transitional uncertainty for taxpayers, court employees, and litigants.
Residents, litigants, and attorneys in the affected states will have improved local access to appellate hearings and reduced caseload pressure because the bill creates/reorganizes circuits, adds authorized court locations, and authorizes additional judges.
Federal judges and court administrators get clear rules for reassignment, notification, and seniority, helping preserve continuity and reducing disputes about precedence and case assignment during the reorganization.
Court administrators have an immediate authority to begin implementation plus a defined two‑year wind‑down timeline, giving courts and affected personnel a planning horizon to manage the transition.
Taxpayers will likely face higher federal costs for court administration, new judgeships, facilities, and related operations, and open-ended authorizations increase the risk of higher long‑term spending.
Federal employees and contractors face job uncertainty, possible reassignments or relocations, and short‑term operational disruption as courts are reorganized and staff redeployed during the transition.
Litigants and attorneys may experience transitional confusion and delays over venue, jurisdiction, pending cases, differing local rules, and case reassignment while circuits and duty stations change.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Splits the current Ninth Circuit into a reconstituted 'new Ninth' and a new Twelfth Circuit, reassigns judges by duty station, updates statutes, and authorizes necessary funding to implement the changes.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Andrew S. Biggs · Last progress January 3, 2025
Reorganizes the existing Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals into two circuits: a reconstituted “new Ninth Circuit” and a newly created Twelfth Circuit, assigns judges to the successor circuits mainly by their official duty station, and sets transitional rules for pending appeals, seniority, and judicial vacancies. It updates circuit listings and judge counts in federal statute, authorizes whatever funding is necessary to implement the changes, and phases in the changes on a one-year timetable with additional administrative actions allowed in the interim.