Supreme Court Routinely Smacks Down the Ninth Circuit

They're known as the "Ninth Circus" around here, but the federal appeals court that covers much of the Western U.S. is the most liberal in the land and the Supreme Court is getting a little tired of them:

Sometimes the Supreme Court simply decides cases and sometimes it seems to have something bigger in mind. In the past two weeks, it has been in scold mode, and its target has been the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

In five straight cases, the court has rejected the work of the San Francisco-based court without a single affirmative vote from a justice. The nation's largest court, stretching from Montana to Hawaii, the 9th has jurisdiction over nearly 20 percent of the nation's citizens. Not surprisingly, it routinely supplies the largest portion of the cases the court reviews each term.

As the most liberal circuit in the land, its work quite often is at odds with an increasingly conservative Supreme Court.

But some of the recent reversals have been delivered with a lash that those who closely watch the courts say reflects more than just a disagreement of law.

"They seem to do that every now and then," said University of Pittsburgh law professor Arthur D. Hellman, an authority on the federal circuits with a particular interest in the 9th. He was referring to the "combination of a cluster of decisions and language meant to send a message."

The Ninth Circus routinely makes decisions that can't be supported by the Constitution. One of the top judges on the Ninth District is married to a former local head of the ACLU, and the court's decisions have often looked more like ACLU propaganda than Constitution-based sound legal doctrine.

Thankfully we have a Supreme Court that can overturn them. That's why presidential and senate elections are so important - those are the people responsible for appointing and confirming the judges that make up both the Supreme Court and the district appeals courts. If the Supreme Court ever is allowed to swing hard left again we'll lose an important check on liberal craziness.