Judicial Efficiency Improvement Act

• Residents and litigants in affected states and territories would see appeals move to different circuits. The new Ninth Circuit would cover California, Guam, Hawaii, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The Twelfth Circuit would cover Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Court locations would include Honolulu, Pasadena, and San Francisco for the Ninth and Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, and Seattle for the Twelfth.
• Judges would be reassigned based on their official duty stations. Senior judges could elect which of the two new circuits to join. The President could appoint two additional circuit judges with duty stations in California for the new Ninth.
• Pending filings would be handled by the court that would have received them if the split had already happened. Cases already submitted would proceed under the original court process.
• The bill starts a phased, multi‑year expansion of district judgeships from 2025 through 2035, beginning with 11 new district judges in 2025 across high‑volume districts including multiple California and New York districts.
• It creates three temporary district judgeships in Oklahoma with nonpermanent tenure rules and sets the Twelfth Circuit headquarters in Seattle. The bill also authorizes temporary inter‑circuit assignments to let judges sit in the other circuit when needed.

*It authorizes appropriations to implement the changes and establishes a funding schedule for the temporary Oklahoma judgeships that starts at about $13.0 million for FY2025–26, rises to about $23.2 million for FY2027–28 and reaches about $61.1 million annually from FY2035, with future amounts adjusted by the Consumer Price Index.*