What "Breaking Up" the 9th Circuit Means

In an "exclusive interview" with the Washington Examiner, President Trump shared his views on breaking up the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. As students in my courses know, the federal appeals court in the United States is divided up geographically (see the map above). The 9th Circuit is huge, and discussions about breaking it up are nothing new. However, the reasons usually given for breaking it up is its size, not its ideology. To be sure, conservatives in the United States loath the 9th Circuit because of its perceived liberal bias, but breaking it up into smaller pieces will not change the ideology of the judges serving in this part of the country. Nor will it stop the so-called "forum shopping" mentioned by the President in this "exclusive interview."

The lines in the interview that really caught my attention are these:

"Absolutely, I have," Trump said of considering 9th Circuit breakup proposals during a far-ranging interview with the Washington Examiner at the White House. "There are many people that want to break up the 9th Circuit. It's outrageous."

"Everybody immediately runs to the 9th Circuit. And we have a big country. We have lots of other locations. But they immediately run to the 9th Circuit. Because they know that's like, semi-automatic," Trump said.

From reading this, I cannot help but think the President believes that breaking up the Ninth Circuit means he gets to fire the judges. Of course he does not. Instead, what breaking up the Court would mean is a few new geographical (or regional) circuits would be formed, and current judges from those regions would simply remain on the new appeals court for their region.  Furthermore, there is nothing in the process of breaking up the circuit that would prevent the dreaded forum shopping that results in "semi-automatic" rulings.