Well, it would appear that Sandra Day O'Connor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States will be announcing her retirement directly. The battle royale in Congress on her replacement will commence after the July 4th break (if it doesn't start before lunchtime today, that is).
While we're on the subject of courts, here's a novel idea for Congress to attend to (and the Supreme Court for that matter) when it can find the time in between discussing flag burning amendments and filibustering court appointees for positions that have been empty so long that court dockets are overwhelmed. How about breaking up the Ninth Circuit into multiple circuits.
This isn't exactly a novel idea, but a map lays the problem out pretty succinctly. The Ninth covers the largest area geographically, and it is too geographically dispersed to do the job properly. Oh, and that the Ninth is the Circuit most often reversed by the Supreme Court has nothing to do with this. It has to do with administration and court efficiency. With so much ground to cover, so many federal-state law interactions possible, it is easy to understand why the Circuit gets the law wrong so much. Cutting the Ninth into two or more new circuits would alleviate part of the problem. Judges in the Ninth would continue working in their positions, except they would be tied to a specific geographical area instead of rotated.
UPDATE:
Is this the issue that will finally knock the shark attacks and Natalee Holloway/Aruba cases off the front pages? I'm not quite sure, but throwing those words in will certainly help my stats [ed: cynical aren't ya!? - yup!].
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