9th Circuit Court of Appeals Backlog

The Congressional infighting over judicial appointments must come to an end.

Federal appeals deserve to be heard and settled in a timely manner, especially questions concerning criminal law, whose expediency is required per the Sixth Amendment.

Why the backlog? The Ninth Circuit is one of the most dysfunctional and unwielding Appellate courts in the nation, with the largest jurisdiction and the largest number of judges presiding.

The ideological warfare that had drawn out judicial appointments shows no sign of abating. As federal judges at all levels are being tapped to resolve increasingly fraught issues of domestic and economic policy in the United States, legislators are determined to pack courts sympathetic to their political views.

Yet instead of treating the judicial system like a political battlefield, Congress must consider stripping the courts of judicial review, or stripping their jurisdiction over controversial issues which can be more effectively settled at the state and local levels.

Perhaps now is the time of Congress to overturn Chief Justice John Marshall's arrogant power grab, also know as judicial review, which he and his associates initiated in Marbury vs. Madison (1803). The United States Constitution never explicitly (or implicitly) empowered the Supreme Court to determine the constitutionality of state and federal law. Even Alexander Hamilton dismissed the judicial branch of the proposed federal government as the weakest branch. For all practical purposes, the Supreme Court's main function was to settle questions of law and enforcement, not rule on the propriety of laws enacted by the representatives of the people and the several states.

If Congress wants to resolve the ideological conflict which is hindering the federal courts, then undo their power to strike down or uphold, or reinterpret legislative acts.