Sponsors (2)
Official title: Amend title 25, United States Code, to provide for the appointment of additional Federal circuit judges, to divide the Ninth Judicial Circuit of the United States into two judicial circuits, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 21, 2025 by Michael Dean Crapo · Last progress July 21, 2025
The bill aims to improve appellate capacity and continuity by creating a new circuit and enabling resources, but does so at the cost of higher taxpayer funding, significant short-term administrative and litigation disruption, and transitional uncertainty for courts, judges, and litigants.
Residents and litigants in the affected states and territories (CA, AK, AZ, ID, MT, NV, OR, WA, HI, GU) will likely get faster appeals and reduced backlog because the bill creates/realigns a new circuit and increases judicial capacity.
Sitting circuit and senior judges and pending cases keep continuity: judges are preserved on new circuits or can choose assignments and many already-filed appeals keep their expected forum, reducing the need for reappointment and minimizing disruption to judicial service.
The bill gives the judiciary a clear administrative transition framework (including a two-year winding-down deadline), which improves predictability for court administrators implementing the reorganization.
Parties with pending or recently filed appeals risk legal uncertainty about forum, precedent, and rehearing procedures because many appeals will be transferred and some rehearing rules are treated as if the Act never passed, prompting potential extra motions or appeals.
Taxpayers face higher short- and long-term costs because the bill authorizes new judgeships, ongoing judge salaries/benefits, and open-ended funding for facilities without specified appropriation caps or fiscal-year limits.
Court staff and government contractors may face job uncertainty, reassignment, or termination and substantial administrative burden as circuits are wound down, cases transferred, and individual judge assignments processed.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Splits the Ninth Circuit into two circuits, reallocates judges by duty station, adds two judgeships, updates statutory circuit tables, and authorizes implementation funding.
Reorganizes the federal judicial circuits by splitting the current Ninth Circuit into a “new Ninth Circuit” and a newly created Twelfth Circuit, reallocating active and senior judges by their official duty stations, adding two circuit judgeships, and updating statutory circuit tables. The bill provides transitional rules for appeals pending at the time of the change, authorizes unspecified appropriations (including for new court facilities), and sets a general effective date one year after enactment with a few exceptions (some provisions take effect sooner).