The following appeared in the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is too big and ineffective. It needs to be broken into two smaller courts to serve the Western United States.

Currently the court has 50 judges to serve nine states and two territories with a population of 54 million people. That’s more than twice as many judges as the other 10 federal appeals courts.

The 9th Circuit is consistently overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. One of the major problems is that the court does not have a clear voice. The large number of judges means that members of the court go years without serving together on three-judge panels. In addition, the court is so large that its rulings are often delayed.

It has been suggested the court be split into two courts, with the 9th Circuit continuing to serve California, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands and the new court serving the rest of the West – Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Alaska and Arizona.

It makes sense. Unfortunately, this common sense plan continues to be victimized by partisan politics.

Democrats in Congress would prefer to keep the status quo because the 9th Circuit’s rulings tend to be more liberal.

It apparently matters little that many of those rulings are overturned by the nation’s high court. Many Democrats, particularly those from California, like what comes out of the current 9th Circuit.

Democrats also fear that President Bush, a Republican, will be picking the judges for the court. So, although Republicans control the House and Senate, they can’t get past Democratic opposition to splitting the court.

Recently, House Republicans employed a little congressional sleight of hand by including the split in a budget bill that would be immune from Senate filibuster. Democrats vow to employ a few moves of their own to counter the GOP trick.

Enough already. It’s time that common sense usurp partisan politics. Let’s reach a politically acceptable compromise on picking judges for the new court and then move on.

The bottom line is that the federal court system in the West needs to be reorganized. It’s just too darn big to be effective.

Beyond that, the Pacific Northwest is getting short shrift. A court that is based in this region and covers states outside of California could better reflect regional views and address the issues important to the Pacific Northwest and other areas.