9th Court of Appeals Leads Nation in Bad Rulings

4 of 5 rulings before the Supreme Court are overturned

If the entire federal judiciary were a barrel of apples then the 9^th circuit is the one bad apple that could spoil the entire lot.

There are 13 courts of appeal that sit below the US Supreme Court. There are 12 courts of appeal that represent specific geographic regions comprised of as few as three states and as many as 11 states and territories. Washington, DC has its own appellate court, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. The 13^th appeals court is the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

While 12 of the appeals courts are bound by geography, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals may accept cases nationwide. This is how the Federal Circuit’s responsibilities are explained on the court’s website:

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is unique among the thirteen circuit courts of appeals. It has nationwide jurisdiction in a variety of subject areas, including international trade, government contracts, patents, trademarks, certain monetary claims against the United States government, federal personnel, veterans’ benefits, and public safety officers’ benefits claims.”

Cases appear before the Supreme Court when it grants writ of certiorari, that is, the court agrees to hear a case. According to the high court’s rules, at least four justices must first agree before the entire court will hear a case.

About 7,000 cases are submitted each year requesting a hearing with nearly all from the appeals courts and most of the remainder from highest court in each of the states and jurisdictions (e.g. Puerto Rico). The Supreme Court typically accepts about 60 cases annually that the justices believe may have national implications.

What is abundantly clear is the majority of the judges who sit on the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals are really bad at understanding, interpreting and applying the Constitution. Essentially, they are incompetent jurists.

In the past five Supreme Court terms (2019-2023), 315 cases came before the high court. One in five cases (64) were from the 9^th Court of Appeals. Making matters worse is 51 of those cases (80%) were overturned by the Supreme Court. Most of these weren’t narrowly decided by either of the two ideological camps on the court (liberal or conservative). Nearly one-half (24) of the cases were overturned by unanimous 9-0 votes. In other words, the high court’s liberal and conservative justices alike ruled the 9^th got it completely wrong. These also included cases where the Supreme Court vacated a 9^th circuit ruling and sent the case back to the 9^th to properly rule on it. This is the judicial equivalent of a rap on the knuckles.

The 9^th appellate court’s 80% overturn rate is not a new phenomena. The 9^th has consistently had 4 of 5 of its decisions that appear before the Supreme Court overturned going back at least two decades.

Not everyone seems concerned with judicial incompetence. Far left groups like the Center for American Progress do not rate the federal circuits on the competence of the judges, but instead on whether they meet some imagined quota of “underrepresented” demographic groups. The Center claims there was a “lack of female judges, judges of color, and judges self-identifying as LGBTQ across the entire federal judiciary.” Apparently, the Center has no opinion on the actual performances of judges.

The reason for the repeated failure is not a mystery. The 9^th appellate court, like the entire 9^th circuit (which includes the district courts), is staffed by incompetent jurists. The only way this can be fixed is by replacing bad judges with good ones.

However, this will take some time. In the meantime, there may a way to mitigate some of the damage caused by the 9^th appellate court. The Ninth is the largest judicial circuit by the number of states and territories represented (11) and the size of the population covered. Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands are in the 9^th judicial circuit. Nearly 68 million people fall under the rulings of the 9^th. The next two largest circuits by population are the 5^th (Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas) with about 39 million and the 11^th (Alabama, Florida and Georgia) with nearly 40 million.

Progress could be made if the 9^th is split in two. This won’t solve the immediate problem of incompetent judges sitting on the 9^th circuit bench. Incompetent judges must be replaced by attrition, which will take time. But cutting up the 9^th into two circuits could potentially lessen the number of people who are harmed by each wacky ruling.

Mark Hyman is a 35-year military veteran and an Emmy award-winning investigative journalist. Follow him on Twitter, Gettr, Parler, and Mastodon.world at @markhyman, and on Truth Social at @markhyman81.

Mark welcomes all news tips and story ideas in the strictest of confidence. You can reach him at markhyman.tv (at) gmail.com.