Proposed legislation would add a judgeship to relieve Ninth Circuit caseload

The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved legislation that would add one judgeship to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, helping to relieve that court's extraordinarily high per-judge caseload.  The proposal would transfer a judgeship from the District of Columbia Circuit to the Ninth Circuit, reducing the number of DC Circuit judges to 11 while increasing the number of active Ninth Circuit judges to 29.  Last year the Ninth Circuit saw 523 appeals filed per judge, while in the DC Circuit there were 107 appeals filed per judge.

The legislation now goes to the full Senate for a vote.  See coverage of the proposal, and press releases by sponsoring Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Jon Kyl.

See the Oregon Business Litigation blog's coverage of earlier proposals to split the Ninth Circuit here and here.