America's Fifth Circuit Problem

[Passages]

Judges are now fighting over the right to hear important policy cases.

BY HASSAN ALI KANU APRIL 15, 2024

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is part of a judicial pipeline that fast-tracks right-wing rulings to the Supreme Court—and creates endless delays for policies that protect and benefit the public. Corporate America and conservative activists agree: We live in the United States of Texas, Louisiana & Mississippi.

These states have increasingly played host to major federal lawsuits implicating national policy, primarily in the Northern District of Texas, where certain divisions have just one or two judges, appointed by Republican presidents. The Amarillo division, for example, is only assigned one judge, and so cases there flow unilaterally to ultraconservative Donald Trump appointee and anti-abortion activist Matthew Kacsmaryk. In the Fort Worth division, you get a choice of two judges: George W. Bush appointee Reed O’Connor, or Trump judge Mark Pittman.

All of these judges are reliable champions for a radically conservative vision of the law. When their rulings are appealed, they end up at the just-as-conservative Fifth Circuit, also stacked with partisan ideologues. This has generated a pipeline that fast-tracks right-wing rulings to the Supreme Court—and creates endless delays for policies that protect and benefit the public.


https://prospect.org/justice/2024-04-15-americas-fifth-circuit-problem/

[pwb]

1. Fight back with our friendly circuits?

Give them back a what for? Fuck with what they favor, like gun laws.