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Supreme Court's taking an influx of cases from one circuit
The lower court, with the highest number of 2023-2024 Supreme Court cases thus far, is also the nation's most conservative.
www.newsweek.com
3.27.24
The Supreme Court has heard oral arguments in more than 50 cases this term, and the plurality of them have come from the nation's most conservative appeals court: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. The 5th Circuit, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, far outnumbers other lower courts when it comes to getting a case before the High Court's justices. Of the cases that the Court has heard thus far, 10 have come from the 5th Circuit. Comparably, seven cases have come from the 2nd and 9th Circuits each and four from the 3rd, 8th and 11th Circuits each.
The 5th Circuit not only represents a higher volume of cases but is also the origin of major legal battles. The 2023-2024 cases that have come from the lower court thus far include the Supreme Court's first Second Amendment case since its landmark ruling in State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen in 2022 and the Court's first abortion case since it overturned Roe v. Wade that year. As more and more cases from the 5th Circuit land before the justices, some legal scholars are warning that conservative groups are increasingly bringing their cases to the appeals court in hopes of a better chance at litigating all the way to the Supreme Court.
Here's how it works. Say you are a far-right organization that is seeking to overturn a particular personal right. Well, you get a local Republican attorney to file a lawsuit with the District Court in Amarillo, Texas. Your lawsuit will be heard by the uber-conservative and Trump-appointed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. How do we know this? Because Matthew Kacsmaryk is the sole District Court Judge in Amarillo, ensuring that all cases filed there land in front of him. There is no guesswork over how he will rule. He always rules in favor of the conservative angle. Don't like his ruling? Well then, you are forced to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, another uber-conservative bench. Don't agree with their ruling? Well then, take your argument to the US Supreme Court, which is precisely what the conservative organization that filed the original lawsuit in Amarillo actually wanted... an opportunity to convince the 6 conservative Supreme Court Justices to change the law of the land (and disenfranchise yet another group).
Conservative groups have constructed a conveyor-belt process for having their cause heard by the 5th Circuit CoA, and then hopefully, the US Supreme Court. It's no accident that high profile court cases are uitilizing this template.