Judging the Courts / Ninth Circuit strikes out (LIBERALS BUSTED AGAIN)

sfgate.com ^ | July 29, 2003 | Susan Blake, Charles Hobson

[carlo3b]

Judging the Courts
Ninth Circuit strikes out

Susan Blake, Charles Hobson
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/07/29/ED219964.DTL

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco is holding up the parade. The parade of justice, that is. A review of the significant decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court this last term reveals that an inordinate amount of judicial attention was directed to correcting bad decisions from the Ninth Circuit. Although sympathetic court commentators have skewed the particulars in order to make the Ninth Circuit appear mainstream, in terms of criminal law the court could hardly be worse.

Of 72 cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2002-03 term, 28 of them were criminal cases or directly related to issues of criminal law. Ten of these 28 were from the Ninth Circuit and all 10 were reversed. That means the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit 100 percent of the time when considering criminal cases. The Supreme Court had to expend more than one third of its attention in criminal law just curing judicial defects from the Ninth. Two of these cases were reversed summarily, meaning the decisions were so obviously wrong that the high court did not even need to hear oral argument.

By comparison, the Supreme Court took 10 criminal cases from the remaining 10 U.S. circuit courts of appeal and reversed nine of them. From state courts, the Supreme Court took eight criminal cases, reversing five. While these reversal rates are nearly as high, bear in mind that the cases came from the rest of the nation. The Ninth Circuit contributes as much trouble as all the other circuits -- and more than all the states combined.

These figures become even more significant when one considers that typically, crime issues are more important to citizens than are issues of civil law. Supreme Court decisions on civil issues, such as legal-aid funding or federal labor laws, influence certain constituencies. Crime, however, affects everybody. When an appellate court makes law that shelters criminal defendants, all of society is endangered. Herein is the real problem: Nine of the 10 criminal cases from the Ninth Circuit were reversed in favor of the prosecution. In other words, the Supreme Court had to step in and rescue society from bad criminal law in 90 percent of the cases.

But it gets even more chilling. The Ninth Circuit decides around 4,000 cases a year. How many more wrongly decided, dangerous opinions are out there? How many more criminals have been released on our streets as a result of the erroneous Ninth Circuit? Statistically, the Ninth is spewing forth hundreds, if not thousands, of wrongly decided cases every year.

[carlo3b]

Of 72 cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2002-03 term, 28 of them were criminal cases or directly related to issues of criminal law. Ten of these 28 were from the Ninth Circuit and all 10 were reversed. That means the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit 100 percent of the time when considering criminal cases. The Supreme Court had to expend more than one third of its attention in criminal law just curing judicial defects from the Ninth. Two of these cases were reversed summarily, meaning the decisions were so obviously wrong that the high court did not even need to hear oral argument.

[Diver Dave]

ya gotta wonder how many more it would be if prosecutors were to take all the unjust decisions to the Supremes.

These "folks" are indeed walking around on our streets.

Also wonder if prosecutors are passing on prosecutions knowing how the Ninth will respond to appeals.