More on monkeying with the 9th

The Recorder reports House Committee to Take Up Measure to Reconfigure the Ninth Circuit: The House Judiciary Committee is set to consider Rep. Darrell Issa's proposal to divide the nation's largest circuit court into three regional divisions and one circuit-wide division at a markup hearing Thursday morning.

The bill, introduced Monday by Rep. Darrell Issa, proposes dividing the Ninth Circuit into three regionally based divisions—a Northern Division composed of the district courts in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington’s Eastern and Western districts of Washington; a Middle Division made up of the courts in Guam, Hawaii, Nevada and the Northern Mariana Islands, as well as California’s Eastern and Northern districts; and a Southern Division including Arizona and the Southern and Central districts of California.

The bill, dubbed the ‘‘Court Imbalance Restructure Concerning Updates to Impacted Tribunals Act of 2018″ or CIRCUIT Act, also proposes an additional circuit-wide division made up of the chief judge and four judges from each of the regional divisions chosen at random that would hear tax cases, appeals of final agency actions, and cases where two of the regional divisions had split on an issue. Issa’s bill would also add five additional active judgeships to the circuit, raising the total to 34.