Judicial Reorganization Act Splits Ninth Circuit, Creating New Twelfth Circuit and Adding Two New Judgeships

The Judicial Reorganization Act of 2025 is tackling the biggest federal appellate court in the country—the Ninth Circuit—by effectively splitting it in two. This isn’t just moving furniture; it’s redrawing the map for how federal law gets interpreted across the West. The bill, which takes full effect one year after enactment, increases the total number of federal judicial circuits from thirteen to fourteen, creating a brand new Twelfth Circuit.

The New Judicial Map: Who’s In and Who’s Out

Before the split, the Ninth Circuit covered nine states and two territories, making it huge and famously slow. This bill carves out a new Twelfth Circuit from the mix, aiming to streamline the process. The new Ninth Circuit will keep California, Guam, and Hawaii. The Twelfth Circuit will cover Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. This is a big deal for anyone living in those seven states because it means their appeals will now be heard by a smaller, dedicated court, potentially speeding up decisions on everything from environmental regulations to business disputes (Sec. 3).

What Happens to the Judges and the Caseload?

To handle the workload, the bill immediately creates two new circuit judgeships for the new Ninth Circuit, requiring presidential appointment and Senate confirmation. One must be based in California, Guam, or Hawaii, and the other in the states forming the new Twelfth Circuit (Sec. 4). For the existing judges, the split is mostly automatic: an active judge is assigned to the new circuit based entirely on where their official duty station was located the day before the split (Sec. 7). If you’re a senior judge, you get a choice—you can elect whether to join the new Ninth or the Twelfth Circuit (Sec. 8). Crucially, no matter where they land, all judges keep their original seniority date from when they were first commissioned, so they don’t lose their standing in the court hierarchy (Sec. 9).

The Case File Shuffle: Continuity in Court

If you have a case currently pending in the Ninth Circuit, the bill has a clear plan to prevent procedural chaos. Cases that have already been argued and submitted to a panel of judges will be finished by the judges who heard them, as if the split never happened (Sec. 10). However, if your appeal hasn't been submitted yet, the entire file will be physically moved to the new court—either the new Ninth or the new Twelfth—that would have had jurisdiction under the new structure. This ensures that while the court changes, the legal process continues without requiring parties to refile anything. This is vital for businesses and individuals currently tied up in litigation, providing certainty during a massive administrative change.

The Cost of Reorganization

Setting up a whole new federal appellate circuit isn't cheap. The bill authorizes Congress to appropriate “such sums as may be necessary” to implement the Act, specifically calling out funding needed for new court facilities (Sec. 13). This open-ended spending authority means there's no fixed budget cap for the creation of the Twelfth Circuit, which will require new clerks, administration, and potentially new physical locations for court sessions. For taxpayers, this means an undefined but likely substantial investment to fund the new judicial infrastructure. The administrative transition itself is handed to the existing Ninth Circuit for a two-year period to manage the logistics of the split (Sec. 11).