Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Analysis of 9th Cir. being reversed


The Juris Lab continues to crunch numbers with the latest installment being One Court on High with Twelve Circuits Below

  • More panel decisions were reviewed and either affirmed or reversed from the Ninth Circuit than from any other circuit. That is not entirely surprising given the size of the Circuit. These decisions were overwhelmingly reversed or vacated with an 84% overturn rate. The Second and Fifth Circuits also had high overturn rates, each at 78%.
  • Since decisions from the Ninth Circuit dominated the Court’s review it should come as no surprise that Ninth Circuit judges are positioned atop the figure for overall review of panel votes. ... Judges Nguyen and Graber were each on five panels whose opinions were reviewed by the Supreme Court. Judges who had four panel votes include Judge Fuentes from the Third Circuit, Judges Higginbotham and Elrod from the Fifth Circuit, Judge Moore from the Sixth Circuit, Judges Wallace, Paez, Berzon, McKeown, and Bea from the Ninth Circuit, Judge Briscoe from the Tenth Circuit, and Judges William Pryor, Wilson, and Carnes from the Eleventh Circuit.
  • the Ninth Circuit has the most judges with at least three votes in opposition to the Supreme Court’s position on review.
  • The only judge with five votes overturned by the Supreme Court was Judge Nguyen from the Ninth Circuit. Four judges had four votes overturned including three from the Ninth Circuit — Judges Paez, McKeown, and Berzon
  • The data from the post confirms the common assumption that the Ninth Circuit is still the most heavily overturned judicial circuit in the nation.