Northwest doesn't need its own federal court circuit

Contrary to the view that the Pacific Northwest deserves its own federal court circuit, we, the chief district judges in the two trial courts that serve the state of Washington, strongly support keeping the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals as is.

We are joined in this position by the chief district judges from the states of Alaska, Idaho and Montana, three of the other four states that proponents such as The Seattle Times ("A Pacific Northwest federal appeals court," editorial, Oct. 2) would like to carve out of the present 9th Circuit to create a new 13th Circuit of Pacific Northwest states.

In addition to the district judges who overwhelmingly favor maintaining the 9th Circuit in its present form, the chief bankruptcy judges in our two Washington districts believe a circuit split would hurt their work by damaging innovations the bankruptcy judges have devised that are unique in the country.

It is not only judges who feel this way. The bar associations of the states of Washington, Montana and Alaska oppose division of the circuit, as do the Federal Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Lawyers who practice in our courts believe the 9th Circuit is functioning very well as is.

Businesses that utilize the federal courts to provide efficient and effective decisions in such difficult areas as intellectual property, maritime trade, labor relations and banking rules don't want balkanized federal appeals courts. As president-elect of the American Bar Association, William Neukom, recently told Congress, "[T]here is a significant advantage to the court's current structure from a business perspective — an economy of scale that would be lost if the current court were divided."

Neukom, a Seattle attorney, also pointed to the business community's need for certainty and predictability in the law as "critical elements of a business climate that supports innovation and economic strength."

Splitting the 9th Circuit into so-called mini-regional courts (a Southwest circuit, a Pacific Northwest circuit and a strictly California circuit) goes against the global trend of consolidating legal and economic systems and shrinking the world to the point where physical geography has far less meaning.

At present time there is no bill before Congress to create this Pacific Northwest appeals court, but there is a misguided effort to create a new circuit lumping together the Southwest states and the Northwest states in a circuit that will be headquartered in Phoenix. That has all the problems of expense, inefficiency and inconven-ience (it is much harder to travel to Phoenix from Seattle, Portland, Anchorage, Boise and Missoula than it is to fly to San Francisco, the current center of the 9th Circuit) without any meaningful advantages. Our bar, our judges and our two United States senators all oppose this bill.

For those who think the Pacific Northwest states get overlooked in the 9th Circuit, this is simply not true. The 2005 Judicial Conference, which featured such distinguished speakers as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, former Sen. Slade Gorton and author Sherman Alexie, was held in Spokane. Federal judges and practicing attorneys from Washington state occupy leadership positions on key 9th Circuit committees. We are fully integrated in the 9th Circuit and we enjoy being part of the most diverse group of judges in the country.

Finally, in this time of scarce financial resources, creating three separate circuit courts, with three separate clerk's offices and three separate circuit administrations operating in three separate cities is expensive, inefficient and unnecessary.

There is a reason we dispense justice daily as United States district judges in United States courthouses. The laws we enforce are not "regional" and their interpretations should not vary based on which part of the country the case is heard.

The independence of United States district and circuit judges in the South, who had the courage to apply national law to the many attempts by powerful state and local leaders to thwart laws and Supreme Court decisions on civil rights and voting rights in the 1960s, is testament to why we should be very skeptical of attempts by politicians to divide circuit courts by regional identity.

Robert S. Lasnik is chief judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. Robert H. Whaley is chief judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.