title:  ALERT: Republicans Push Bill To Split Ninth Circuit Court In Response To Ruling Against Trump
text: Republicans are now gunning for the Ninth Circuit Court in an effort to kill courts that don t have a strictly conservative viewpoint.Not long after the Ninth Circuit Court ruled against reinstating Donald Trump s executive order banning travel into the United States from seven countries, Republicans made a bill written by GOP Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain a top priority.Conservatives have long despised the Ninth Circuit, which is based in San Francisco, for issuing rulings they don t like.If the bill were to pass, the Ninth Circuit Court would be split in two and a 12th Circuit Court would be created. The Ninth would continue to have jurisdiction over California, Oregon, Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands while the 12th would have jurisdiction over Republican-controlled states like Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska with Washington and Nevada thrown in.Basically, Republicans are trying to rig the judicial branch in their favor.Flake and McCain are whining that the Ninth is too liberal and that it has jurisdiction over too much of the country.  It represents 20 percent of the population   and 40 percent of the land mass is in that jurisdiction. It s just too big,  Flake told Fox News on Wednesday.  We have a bedrock principle of swift justice and if you live in Arizona or anywhere in the 9th Circuit, you just don t have it. Fox News also used the fact that the Ninth Circuit Court holds the record for most decisions overturned by the Supreme Court as an excuse to justify the split.However, it should also be pointed out that the Ninth also holds the record for the most decisions upheld.Of course, considering that conservatives have held a majority on the Supreme Court for decades, it s pretty obvious why many decisions of the Ninth have been reversed.Conservatives have been trying to split up the Ninth Circuit for many years. Flake claims that liberal judges on the court are at fault but a commission formed by Congress in 1998 recommended against splitting it up. Both chambers had Republican majorities at the time.It s not unprecedented for Congress to split a court, but this time it s different. Republicans are only targeting the Ninth because they hate the rulings that come out of it. So now they aim to kill rulings they don t like by preventing them altogether.This is a Republican ploy to seize power in the judicial branch to prevent rulings against their agenda like the one handed down against Trump on Thursday.It s eerily similar to the  court packing  scheme conservatives opposed when Franklin Roosevelt tried to add more judges to the Supreme Court. Now conservatives apparently have no problem with such schemes as long as they favor their side.This is something the American people must oppose. Rigging the court system is totally un-American and undemocratic, especially since it is very clear that Republicans are doing this for partisan reasons.Donald Trump is not a king. And the judicial branch serves as a crucial check on executive power to keep the government balanced. But if Republicans have their way, there will be one less check and the balance will tip overwhelmingly their way.Read more:Featured image via Wikimedia