I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 634
To amend title 28, United States Code, to provide for the appointment
of additional Federal circuit judges, to divide the Ninth Judicial Circuit
of the United States into two judicial circuits, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY22, 2025
Mr. S
IMPSON(for himself and Mr. FULCHER) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 28, United States Code, to provide for the
appointment of additional Federal circuit judges, to di-
vide the Ninth Judicial Circuit of the United States
into two judicial circuits, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ninth Circuit Court 4
of Appeals Judgeship and Reorganization Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act— 7
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(1) the term ‘‘former ninth circuit’’ means the 1
ninth judicial circuit of the United States as in ex-2
istence on the day before the effective date of this 3
Act; 4
(2) the term ‘‘new ninth circuit’’ means the 5
ninth judicial circuit of the United States established 6
by the amendment made by section 3(2)(A); and 7
(3) the term ‘‘twelfth circuit’’ means the twelfth 8
judicial circuit of the United States established by 9
the amendment made by section 3(2)(B). 10
SEC. 3. NUMBER AND COMPOSITION OF CIRCUITS. 11
Section 41 of title 28, United States Code, is amend-12
ed— 13
(1) in the matter preceding the table, by strik-14
ing ‘‘thirteen’’ and inserting ‘‘fourteen’’; and 15
(2) in the table— 16
(A) by striking the item relating to the 17
ninth circuit and inserting the following: 18
‘‘Ninth .................................................. California, Guam, Hawaii, Northern
Mariana Islands.’’;
and 19
(B) by inserting after the item relating to 20
the eleventh circuit the following: 21
‘‘Twelfth ............................................... Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Ne-
vada, Oregon, Washington.’’.
SEC. 4. JUDGESHIPS.
22
(a) N
EWJUDGESHIPS.— 23
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(1) FOR FORMER NINTH CIRCUIT .—The Presi-1
dent shall appoint, by and with the advice and con-2
sent of the Senate, 2 additional circuit judges for 3
the former ninth circuit. The official duty station of 4
a judge appointed under this paragraph shall be in 5
Arizona, California, or Nevada. 6
(2) F
OR NEW NINTH CIRCUIT .—The President 7
shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of 8
the Senate, 3 circuit judges for the new ninth cir-9
cuit. The judges authorized by this paragraph shall 10
not be appointed before January 21, 2025. 11
(b) T
EMPORARYJUDGESHIPS.— 12
(1) A
PPOINTMENT OF JUDGES .—The President 13
shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of 14
the Senate, 2 additional circuit judges for the former 15
ninth circuit. The official duty station of a judge ap-16
pointed under this paragraph shall be in Arizona, 17
California, or Nevada. 18
(2) E
FFECT OF VACANCIES.—The first 2 vacan-19
cies occurring on the new ninth circuit 10 years or 20
more after judges are first confirmed to fill both 21
temporary circuit judgeships created by this sub-22
section shall not be filled. 23
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This section shall take effect 24
on the date of the enactment of this Act. 25
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SEC. 5. NUMBER OF CIRCUIT JUDGES. 1
The table contained in section 44(a) of title 28, 2
United States Code, is amended— 3
(1) by striking the item relating to the ninth 4
circuit and inserting the following: 5
‘‘Ninth ............................................................................................ 25’’;
and 6
(2) by inserting after the item relating to the 7
eleventh circuit the following: 8
‘‘Twelfth ......................................................................................... 9’’.
SEC. 6. PLACES OF CIRCUIT COURT.
9
The table contained in section 48(a) of title 28, 10
United States Code, is amended— 11
(1) by striking the item relating to the ninth 12
circuit and inserting the following: 13
‘‘Ninth .................................................. Honolulu, San Francisco, Pasadena.’’;
and 14
(2) by inserting after the item relating to the 15
eleventh circuit the following: 16
‘‘Twelfth ............................................... Phoenix, Seattle.’’.
SEC. 7. ASSIGNMENT OF CIRCUIT JUDGES.
17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 18
(b), each circuit judge of the former ninth circuit who is 19
in regular active service and whose official duty station 20
on the day before the effective date of this Act— 21
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(1) is in California, Guam, Hawaii, or the 1
Northern Mariana Islands shall be a circuit judge of 2
the new ninth circuit as of such effective date; and 3
(2) is in Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Ne-4
vada, Oregon, or Washington shall be a circuit judge 5
of the twelfth circuit as of such effective date. 6
(b) S
PECIALRULETOENSURESTATUTORYDIS-7
TRIBUTION OF JUDGES.—If the assignment of judges 8
under subsection (a) would result in a number of judges 9
in either the new ninth circuit or the twelfth circuit that 10
exceeds the number provided for that circuit in the table 11
contained in section 44(a) of title 28, United States Code, 12
as amended by section 5 of this Act, then a number of 13
judges accounting for such excess who are the least senior 14
in commission shall be assigned to the other circuit. 15
SEC. 8. ELECTION OF ASSIGNMENT BY SENIOR JUDGES. 16
Each judge who is a senior circuit judge of the former 17
ninth circuit on the day before the effective date of this 18
Act may elect to be assigned to the new ninth circuit or 19
to the twelfth circuit as of such effective date, and shall 20
notify the Director of the Administrative Office of the 21
United States Courts of such election. 22
SEC. 9. SENIORITY OF JUDGES. 23
The seniority of each judge— 24
(1) who is assigned under section 7, or 25
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(2) who elects to be assigned under section 8, 1
shall run from the date of commission of such judge as 2
a judge of the former ninth circuit. 3
SEC. 10. APPLICATION TO CASES. 4
The following apply to any case in which, on the day 5
before the effective date of this Act, an appeal or other 6
proceeding has been filed with the former ninth circuit: 7
(1) If the matter has been submitted for deci-8
sion, further proceedings with respect to the matter 9
shall be had in the same manner and with the same 10
effect as if this Act had not been enacted. 11
(2) If the matter has not been submitted for de-12
cision, the appeal or proceeding, together with the 13
original papers, printed records, and record entries 14
duly certified, shall, by appropriate orders, be trans-15
ferred to the court to which the matter would have 16
been submitted had this Act been in full force and 17
effect at the time such appeal was taken or other 18
proceeding commenced, and further proceedings with 19
respect to the case shall be had in the same manner 20
and with the same effect as if the appeal or other 21
proceeding had been filed in such court. 22
(3) A petition for rehearing or a petition for re-23
hearing en banc in a matter decided before the effec-24
tive date of this Act, or submitted before the effec-25
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tive date of this Act and decided on or after such 1
effective date as provided in paragraph (1), shall be 2
treated in the same manner and with the same effect 3
as though this Act had not been enacted. If a peti-4
tion for rehearing en banc is granted, the matter 5
shall be reheard by a court comprised as though this 6
Act had not been enacted. 7
SEC. 11. TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENT OF CIRCUIT JUDGES 8
BETWEEN CIRCUITS. 9
Section 291 of title 28, United States Code, is 10
amended by adding at the end the following new sub-11
sections: 12
‘‘(c) The chief judge of the ninth circuit may, in the 13
public interest and upon request by the chief judge of the 14
twelfth circuit, designate and assign temporarily any cir-15
cuit judge of the ninth circuit to act as circuit judge in 16
the twelfth circuit. 17
‘‘(d) The chief judge of the twelfth circuit may, in 18
the public interest and upon request by the chief judge 19
of the ninth circuit, designate and assign temporarily any 20
circuit judge of the twelfth circuit to act as circuit judge 21
in the ninth circuit.’’. 22
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SEC. 12. TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENT OF DISTRICT JUDGES 1
BETWEEN CIRCUITS. 2
Section 292 of title 28, United States Code, is 3
amended by adding at the end the following new sub-4
sections: 5
‘‘(f) The chief judge of the ninth circuit may in the 6
public interest— 7
‘‘(1) upon request by the chief judge of the 8
twelfth circuit, designate and assign one or more 9
district judges within the ninth circuit to sit upon 10
the Court of Appeals of the Twelfth Circuit or a di-11
vision thereof whenever the business of that court so 12
requires; and 13
‘‘(2) designate and assign temporarily any dis-14
trict judge of the ninth circuit to hold a district 15
court in any district within the twelfth circuit. 16
‘‘(g) The chief judge of the twelfth circuit may in the 17
public interest— 18
‘‘(1) upon request by the chief judge of the 19
ninth circuit, designate and assign one or more dis-20
trict judges within the twelfth circuit to sit upon the 21
Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit or a division 22
thereof whenever the business of that court so re-23
quires; and 24
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‘‘(2) designate and assign temporarily any dis-1
trict judge of the twelfth circuit to hold a district 2
court in any district within the ninth circuit. 3
‘‘(h) Any designation and assignment of a judge 4
under subsection (f)(1) or (g)(1) shall be in conformity 5
with the rules or orders of the court of appeals of the cir-6
cuit to which the judge is designated and assigned.’’. 7
SEC. 13. ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATION. 8
Section 332 of title 28, United States Code, is 9
amended by adding at the end the following new sub-10
section: 11
‘‘(i) Any 2 contiguous circuits may jointly carry out 12
such administrative functions and activities as the judicial 13
councils of the 2 circuits determine may benefit from co-14
ordination or consolidation.’’. 15
SEC. 14. ADMINISTRATION. 16
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth 17
Circuit as constituted on the day before the effective date 18
of this Act may take such administrative action as may 19
be required to carry out this Act and the amendments 20
made by this Act. Such court shall cease to exist for ad-21
ministrative purposes upon the expiration of the 2-year pe-22
riod beginning on the effective date of this Act. 23
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SEC. 15. EFFECTIVE DATE. 1
Except as provided in section 4(c), this Act and the 2
amendments made by this Act shall take effect on the first 3
day of the first fiscal year that begins after the expiration 4
of the 9-month period beginning on the first date on which 5
5 of the judges authorized to be appointed under section 6
4 have been confirmed by the United States Senate. 7
SEC. 16. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 8
There are authorized to be appropriated such sums 9
as may be necessary to carry out this Act, including funds 10
for additional court facilities. 11
Æ
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