Sponsors (6)
Official title: Increase the number of judgeships for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and certain district courts of the United States, and for other purposes.
Introduced October 21, 2025 by Daniel Scott Sullivan · Last progress October 21, 2025
The bill offers faster, more localized appellate capacity and clearer administrative structure by creating a new circuit and adding judges, but it increases federal spending and creates short-to-medium-term administrative and legal uncertainty during the transition.
Litigants, businesses, and courts in the affected geography will see faster appellate decisions and lower judge caseloads because the bill creates a new circuit, adds judgeships, and enables temporary judge assignments to address backlogs.
Federal judges, court staff, and courts get clearer statutory structure and predictable administrative timelines, including preserved commission seniority for reassigned judges and a two-year wind-down deadline, which helps planning and preserves internal fairness.
Courts and local governments can obtain funding and facility support to implement the reorganization, allowing timely expansion or construction of court facilities and a phased implementation that smooths transitions.
Taxpayers will face higher federal costs because the bill authorizes new judgeships, staffing, and facility funding that raise long-term salaries, benefits, and operational spending.
Litigants, attorneys, and court staff may experience significant transitional disruption — extra administrative work, record transfers, docket changes, and short-term staffing uncertainty — that can delay case processing and burden court operations.
Parties to litigation and attorneys could face legal uncertainty and longer timelines because jurisdictional transfers and circuit reallocation may change which precedents apply and delay some appeals.
Based on analysis of 17 sections of legislative text.
Splits the Ninth Circuit into two circuits, reassigns judges, creates many new district and circuit judgeships, sets transition rules, and authorizes implementation funding.
Splits the current Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals into two circuits (a reconfigured Ninth Circuit and a new Twelfth Circuit), reallocates active and senior judges between them, creates many new authorized district and circuit judgeships to be filled by presidential appointment with Senate confirmation, establishes transitional procedures for pending cases, allows temporary reciprocal judge assignments between the two circuits, designates Seattle as the Twelfth Circuit clerk/executive location, and authorizes unspecified funding to implement the changes. Most provisions take effect one year after enactment, with some judgeships and certain provisions effective on enactment or on specified later dates (e.g., January 21, 2027).