The list of detractors for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals—arguably the most liberal court in America—continues to grow, with former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich flat-out advocating the court's abolition.
“The Ninth Circuit is so consistently wrong, it is so consistently radical, it is such a violation of the spirit of American history, that we’d be better off if we simply abolished it,” Gingrich told Focus on the Family Chairman Dr. James Dobson in a radio broadcast last week.
“This would be a completely reasonable court in France. It makes no sense as a court in the United States.”
Gingrich's plan is likely just a pipe dream, though. Supreme Court justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas have spoken recently about splitting the court into smaller circuits because of caseload -- but that won't solve the problem of how the judges on the court rules on cases.
Only the U.S. Supreme Court routinely overturning the Ninth Court’s decisions, has stopped such things as assisted suicide, censoring of the Pledge of Allegiance and forfeiture of parental rights in the public schools from becoming the law of the land for all Americans. As it is, the Ninth Circuit’s rulings affect nearly a quarter of the U.S. population, due to the extreme size of the district.
Last November conservative columnist George Will opined: “There should be two Supreme Courts, one to reverse the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the other to hear all other cases.” Will, the famous baseball fan, also noted that the court’s record of being overturned by the Supreme Court was abysmal, “The Ninth's winning percentage (.167) was worse than that of the 1962 Mets (.250).”
Then on Monday The Wall Street Journal noted that it’s actually getting worse. The “cumulative vote against the Ninth Circuit in Supreme Court Review since October is 67-5,” it said, and in the new current term it’s 8-0.
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, cited a Ninth Circuit ruling just this week that held a church can be prevented from using a library meeting room, even though it’s open to every other member of the public.
“That’s an outrageous violation of 20 years of Supreme Court precedents on equal access to public facilities for the religious voice in America,” he told CitizenLink. “The fact that the Ninth Circuit can’t understand that simply highlights the problem of allowing liberal judges to be appointed to the federal court.”
Hausknecht indicated the only hope is for more appointments of conservative judges to overcome the current 16-11 dominance by justices appointed by presidents Carter and Clinton.
“The Ninth Circuit is the perfect example of why elections matter,” Hausknecht said. “When we have presidents who can appoint judges who value the Constitution and don’t legislate from the bench, you have decisions that are in line with the Constitution. If you have presidents who don’t believe that and who believe judges should make law rather than interpret it, then you get the Ninth Circuit.”
Josh Montez contributed to this story.
