The 9th's Bad Rap

In Heavy Caseload to Blame for Ninth Circuit's Bad Rap, Bloomberg Law debunks the court's critics:

• a Bloomberg Law analysis of court data shows that the appeals court has a better record than several of its sister circuits.
• When one considers the total number of cases the Ninth Circuit hears, and focuses on the percentage of those cases that are reversed by the Supreme Court-seven circuits actually have the same or worse records.
• Over the last seven terms, the Ninth Circuit has been reversed 108 times, which is more than any other circuit, according to SCOTUSblog statistics. The second most reversed circuit is the Fifth, with 41 reversals. But that’s not the whole story.
• The Ninth Circuit is by far the largest of the 13 federal circuits, hearing about one in every five federal appeals.
• Given its size and the Supreme Court’s propensity for overturning cases, it’s no surprise that the Ninth Circuit regularly has the highest number of reversals for any given term
• Although the Ninth Circuit has the most raw number of reversals, the Sixth Circuit actually has the highest rate of reversal-percent of cases reversed versus affirmed-for cases actually considered by the Supreme Court. The Ninth Circuit is still among the worst, with a reversal rate of 82 percent. But the Sixth Circuit’s rate is 87 percent.
• The better way to analyze the circuit’s records is to compare the total number of cases heard by circuit to the number of times the Supreme Court reversed that circuit -- Under that model, the circuits with the worst records are the D.C. and Federal Circuits.
• But:The unique dockets of the D.C. and Federal circuits suggest that they should be left out of the equation. If you do that, the circuits with the “worst” records are the First and the Tenth --even though those circuits have some of the lowest raw numbers of cases overturned.

Also of note, Bryan Garner's Booking the Dumpster: The tragedy of 'deaccessioning' books from university libraries

And the ABA offers Lawyer Population 15% higher than 10 years ago:

• The number of active attorneys in the United States has increased by 15.2 percent over the last decade, according to the ABA’s National Lawyer Population Survey.
• The total number of lawyers in the United States as of Dec. 31 was 1,338,678. Ten years before that, the total number was 1,162,124.
• With 170,044 resident active lawyers, California ranks #2 (after New York at 177,035). Texas is a distant third with a mere 90,485.

Finally, Happy Space Day. I guess even the Gov recognizes the importance of May the 4th!