Conference Committee Approves
Senator Feinstein's Proposal
for New Judgeships for California
September 24, 2002
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Five new Federal judgeships for San Diego were approved today by a U.S. Senate-House Conference Committee as part of a Department of Justice re-authorization bill that is now expected to be approved by both the Senate and House in the coming days.

Additionally, the Conference Committee approved a new temporary judgeship for the Los Angeles Federal Court, which is the third busiest court in the nation in terms of its civil filing caseload.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who sponsored the legislation to establish the new California judgeships, said: "I am extremely pleased these judgeships were included in the Conference Committee report.

"There is no court in America that is more deserving of these additional judges than San Diego. This is the most overworked, understaffed court in the United States. The local judges have gone so far as to publicly warn Congress that if new judgeships are not created, there is a 'substantial risk' of calamity.

Senator Feinstein noted that the federal court in San Diego has a weighted caseload of 978 cases per judgeship in calendar year 2000, the highest in the country, and more than double the national average.

It also has the heaviest criminal caseload, with an average weighted average caseload of 468 cases per judges, more than 500% above the national average of 74 cases per judge. And in civil cases, many of the judges no longer hear oral arguments; they base their opinions solely on written briefs.

"We pride ourselves as a nation of laws. But, our laws are only vital and strong when we give the judicial branch adequate resources to administer them," Senator Feinstein said. "As Marilyn Huff, Chief Judge of the Southern District, has said: 'There's a certain point where you can't cut corners any more, you can't work any harder, and we've reached that point.'"

Since 1995 Congress has focused significant resources to crack down on illegal immigration and drug trafficking on the Southwest Border, contributing greatly to the increased caseload in the Southern District Court.

In the San Diego area, U.S. Customs intercepts 30 percent of all illicit drugs coming into the country. It is where an estimated half of the nation's cocaine enters the United States, and where federal marshals made 40 percent of all their vehicle seizures last year.

As a result of stepped-up enforcement, from March 1994 through March 1999, criminal case filings in Southwestern border courts increased by 125% (from 6,460 to 14,517), drug prosecutions in these same districts increased by 189% (from 2,864 to 5,414), and immigration prosecutions by 431% (from 1,056 to 5,614).

Yet the Southern District of California has not received any new judges since 1990. Thus, the eight judges who struggled to handle 1,200 felony cases in 1994, handled 3,900 in 1999.

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