GOP closer to breaking up left-leaning 9th Circuit appeals court

By Howard Mintz

Knight Ridder Newspapers

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Republican lawmakers have tried for decades to split the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sometimes called the "Nutty Ninth" by its detractors.

Each time, the nation's largest and most controversial court had done something to tweak a conservative nerve, with rulings on fishing rights in Alaska, timber harvesting in the Northwest or death sentences in California.