Send Clinton judges down the hatch

This judge said of one of his colleagues on the 9th Circuit, Judge Stephen Reinhardt, that "that man is a oneman wrecking crew." Reinhardt's liberal activist opinions require frequent rehearings by the entire circuit (creating more work), review by the Supreme Court (creating more work), and unnecessary reversals and rehearings by the district courts that are attempting to abide by Reinhardt opinions until they are overturned (creating more work).

In the Supreme Court's last term, over 10% of its cases were a direct result of this single Carter appointee. In all 1 I of these cases, Reinhardt's opinions for the 9th Circuit were reversed by the Supreme Court-in nine of them unanimously.

Standing out as a liberal activist on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is something of an accomplishment. The court's personnel is famous for not being hide-bound in following musty old laws when the laws conflict with the liberal agenda.

Why is the 9th Circuit so loopy? When Judge Reinhardt was appointed, there were a number of "vacancies" on the 9th Circuit. Then, as now, a Democrat was President. Presumably in an effort to reduce the judiciary's workload, the Senate quickly confirmed 15 Carter nominees to the 9th Circuit alone. We can see what a big time-saver that was.

Fully one-third of the Supreme Court's docket for the 1996-97 term came from the 9th Circuit. All but one of those 29 cases were reversals. Until those decisions were overturned, all the district courts in the 9th Circuit were required to abide by the rulings in those cases as the law of the circuit.

If the editors at the New York Times are as concerned with the workload of federal judges as their multiple articles and editorials on Rehnquist's report suggest, they ought to be on their knees thanking Mother Earth for Sen. Orrin Hatch.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jan 16, 1998
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