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Circuit court is the name of court systems in several common law jurisdictions.

History[link]

King Henry II instituted the custom of having judges ride around the countryside ("ride circuit") each year to hear cases, rather than forcing everyone to bring their cases to London (see Assize of Clarendon). Thus, the term "circuit court" is derived from the practice of having judges ride around the countryside each year on pre-set paths − circuits − to hear cases. Especially on the United States frontier, a judge might travel alone on horseback along with a group of lawyers. Abraham Lincoln was one such attorney who would ride the circuit in Illinois. In more settled areas, a stagecoach would be used. Eventually the legal caseload in a county would become great enough to warrant the establishment of a local judiciary. Most of these local judicial circuits (that is, in terms of the actual routes traveled by judges) have been thus replaced by judges regularly stationed at local courthouses, but in many areas the legacy term remains in use.

Republic of Ireland[link]

In the Republic of Ireland the Circuit Court is part of the Courts of First Instance, senior to the District Court but junior to the High Court (Ireland). It was first established as the Circuit Court of Justice under the Courts of Justice Act 1924 and replaced the County Court on the civil side, and Quarter Sessions and Recorder's Courts on the criminal side, as well as some of the jurisdiction of the assizes. The criminal jurisdiction of the court extends to all indictable offences other than murder, rape, and treason, and these are heard on front of a judge and jury . The civil jurisdiction of the court is limited to damages of €38,092.14 and actions involving land with a ratable value of less than €254.95 (Land value worth approx. €3 million)^{[citation needed]}. These are heard by a judge sitting alone. It also has jurisdiction to hear appeals from the District Court. Appeals from the Court lie to the High Court on the civil side and the Court of Criminal Appeal on the criminal side.

The Circuit Court is so called because of the circuits on which its judges travel, namely Dublin, Cork, Northern, Western, Eastern, South Western, South Eastern, and Midland, each of which are composed of a number of counties. The court consist of a President and thirty-seven judges. Although there is strictly speaking just one Circuit Court, a sitting of the Circuit Court in any particular location is referred to as name of town Circuit Court, e.g. Trim Circuit Court.

The High Court also sits "on circuit" twice yearly, though this is called the High Court on Circuit rather than a circuit court. In this case on circuit means sitting in a location other than Dublin.

United States[link]

Federal courts of appeals[link]

In the United States, circuit courts were first established in the British Thirteen Colonies. In 1789, the United States circuit courts were United States federal courts established in each federal judicial district. These circuit courts exercised both original (first instance) and appellate jurisdiction. They existed until 1912. The original jurisdiction formerly exercised by the United States circuit courts is now exercised by the United States district courts. Their appellate jurisdiction is now exercised by the United States courts of appeals, which were known as the United States circuit courts of appeals from its establishment in 1894 until 1947.

The federal courts of appeals sit permanently in 13 appellate circuits (11 regional circuits as well as a DC Circuit and the Federal Circuit). Note that there are several other federal courts that bear the phrase "Court of Appeals" in their names, but they are not Article III courts and are not considered to sit in appellate circuits.

The federal courts of appeals are intermediate courts, between the district courts (the federal trial courts) and the Supreme Court. Smaller circuits, such as the Second Circuit and Third Circuit, are based at a single federal courthouse, while others, such as the large Ninth Circuit, are spread across many courthouses. Since three-judge federal appellate panels are randomly selected from all sitting circuit judges, Ninth Circuit judges must often "ride the circuit," though this duty has become much easier to carry out since the development of modern air travel.

Supreme Court of the United States[link]

Under the original Judiciary Act of 1789 and subsequent acts, the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C. had the responsibility of "riding circuit" and personally hearing intermediate appeals, in addition to their caseload back in the capital. This onerous duty was abolished by Congress with the Judiciary Act of 1891. The U.S. Supreme Court justices still retain vestiges of the days of riding circuit; each justice is designated to hear certain interlocutory appeals from specific circuits and can unilaterally decide them or refer them to the entire Court. The Court's customary summer recess originated as the time during which the justices would leave Washington and ride circuit (since dirt roads were more passable in the summer).

State courts[link]

Many U.S. states have state courts called "circuit courts." Most are trial courts of general, original jurisdiction.

• Alabama - Alabama Circuit Courts
• Arkansas - Arkansas Circuit Courts
• Florida - Florida Circuit Courts
• Hawaii - Hawaii State Circuit Courts
• Illinois - Illinois Circuit Courts
• Indiana - Indiana Circuit Courts
• Kentucky - Kentucky Circuit Courts
• Maryland - Maryland Circuit Courts
• Michigan - Michigan Circuit Courts
• Mississippi - Mississippi Circuit Courts
• Missouri - Missouri Circuit Courts
• New Hampshire - New Hampshire Circuit Courts
• Oregon - Oregon Circuit Courts
• South Carolina - South Carolina Circuit Court
• South Dakota - South Dakota Circuit Court
• Tennessee - Tennessee Circuit Courts
• Virginia - Virginia Circuit Court - court of record that has appellate jurisdiction over a county's general district court and juvenile and domestic relations court and original jurisdiction over major civil cases and all the county's felony cases. A circuit court has the power to issue death sentences and impanel grand juries. The court's decisions become legal precedents.
• West Virginia - West Virginia Circuit Court
• Wisconsin - Wisconsin Circuit Court

In Louisiana, the intermediate appellate courts are called the Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal. There are five separate judicial circuits.

In many states, such as Missouri, a judicial circuit can encompass one or more counties (see Missouri Circuit Courts). Each circuit court can have several divisions, including circuit, associate, small claims, probate, family or drug court. Each division hears cases within its particular area of subject-matter jurisdiction, and jurisdiction is based on the size or type of a civil claim, or the severity or type of a criminal charge. Drug court, for example, hears only drug-related criminal cases.

Several U.S. states have state supreme courts that traditionally "ride the circuit" in the sense of hearing oral arguments at multiple locations throughout their jurisdictions each year. Among the states with circuit-riding supreme courts are California, Idaho, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

England and Wales[link]

England and Wales is divided into six regions or circuits for the purposes of the administration of justice.^[1]

• Northern Circuit
• North Eastern Circuit
• Wales and Chester Circuit (also known as Wales and Cheshire)
• Midland Circuit
• Western Circuit
• South Eastern Circuit

The system is overseen by the Lord Chancellor. The membership consists of High Court Judges, Circuit Judges, District Judges, law practitioners and academic lawyers. The Circuits also form the basis for administration of the Bar in England and Wales. The Circuit Bars are represented on the Bar Council through the Circuit Leaders.^[1]

References[link]

See also[link]

• Assize
• Circuit rider (U.S. Court system)
• Circuit rider (Religious)

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (May 2012)

Judge Alex is an American syndicated courtroom television show that debuted September 12, 2005. The host/arbitrator is Judge Alex Ferrer, a former police officer, lawyer, and Florida judge.^[1] The series currently tapes at the Fox Television Center in Los Angeles, California after spending its first five seasons taping at KRIV's studio in Houston, Texas (KRIV is Fox's Houston affiliate).

The show was brought to 20th Television, the syndication arm of Fox, by Executive Producers Burt Wheeler and Sharon Sussman. The pilot was shot at Tribune Studios in Hollywood, California, in November 2004. The series began production in January 2005 and is directed by Arthur Bergel.

References[link]

External links[link]

• JudgeAlex.com - official website
• Judge Alex at the Internet Movie Database

This article relating to reality television in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Alex Kozinski
Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office December 1, 2007
Preceded by	Mary Schroeder
Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office November 7, 1985
Nominated by	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Seat established
Personal details
Born	(1950-07-23) July 23, 1950 (age 61) Bucharest, Romania
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles

Alex Kozinski (born July 23, 1950) is Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, an essayist, and a judicial commentator.^[1]

Biography[link]

Kozinski was born in Bucharest, Romania. In 1962, when he was 12, his parents, both Holocaust survivors, brought him to the United States. The family settled in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, where his father, Moses, ran a small grocery store.

Kozinski graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, receiving an A.B. degree in 1972, and from the UCLA School of Law, receiving a J.D. degree in 1975. Kozinski clerked for future Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Ninth Circuit from 1975 to 1976, and then for Chief Justice Warren Burger from 1976 to 1977. From June 5, 1981 to August 1982, Kozinski served as the first U.S. Special Counsel appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

Judicial career[link]

In 1982, Kozinski was appointed chief judge at the newly formed United States Court of Federal Claims. In 1985, at the age of 35, Kozinski was appointed to a new seat at the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by President Reagan, making him the youngest federal appeals court judge. Defending the court against criticism because of a controversial decision, Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, Kozinski went on record emphasizing judicial independence: "It seems to me that this is what makes this country truly great—that we can have a judiciary where the person who appoints you doesn't own you."^[2] He also took a stand against the charge that the Ninth Circuit is overly liberal, which led some to call it "The Notorious Ninth": "I can say with some confidence that cries that the Ninth Circuit is so liberal are just simply misplaced."^[3] On November 30, 2007, Kozinski was appointed the tenth chief judge of the Ninth Circuit.^[4]

In 2008, according to The Los Angeles Times, Kozinski "maintained a publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos."^[5] In response, Kozinski called for an ethics investigation of himself.^[6] In July 2009, Kozinski was admonished by a panel headed by Judge Anthony Scirica.^[7][8]

Notable cases[link]

[edit] Thompson v. Calderon

Thomas Martin Thompson had been convicted based largely on the testimony of his fellow inmates, and doubts about the effectiveness of his defense counsel led seven former California prosecutors to file briefs on Thompson's behalf. The Ninth Circuit originally denied Thompson's habeas petition attacking the state court decision. Two days before Thompson's scheduled execution, the Ninth Circuit en banc reversed (7-4) the earlier denial. Kozinski dissented:

If the en banc call is missed for whatever reason, the error can be corrected in a future case where the problem again manifests itself. ... That this is a capital case does not change the calculus. The stakes are higher in a death case, to be sure, but the stakes for a particular litigant play no legitimate role in the en banc process.

Kozinski's opinion was criticized by Judge Steven Reinhardt, who called it "bizarre and horrifying" and "unworthy of any jurist."^[9] The en banc decision was reversed by the Supreme Court, which called the Ninth Circuit's action "a grave abuse of discretion."^[10]

[edit] White v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

Images of Vanna White and the Samsung robot, from Kozinski's dissent in White v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

Kozinski dissented from an order rejecting the suggestion for rehearing en banc an appeal filed by Vanna White against Samsung for depicting a robot on a Wheel of Fortune set, in a humorous advertisement. While the Ninth Circuit held in favor of White, Kozinski dissented, stating that "All creators draw in part on the work of those who came before, referring to it, building on it, poking fun at it; we call this creativity, not piracy."^[11]

An extended extract from the opinion is widely quoted: "Overprotecting intellectual property is as harmful as underprotecting it. Creativity is impossible without a rich public domain. Nothing today, likely nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new: Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before. Overprotection stifles the very creative forces it's supposed to nurture".^[12]

Kozinski's dissent in White is also famous for his sarcastic remark that "for better or worse, we are the Court of Appeals for the Hollywood Circuit."

[edit] Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc.

Yet another of Kozinski's high-profile cases to date was the lawsuit filed by Mattel against MCA Records, the record label of Danish pop-dance group Aqua, for "turning Barbie into a sex object" in their song "Barbie Girl." Kozinski opened the case with "If this were a sci-fi melodrama, it might be called Speech-Zilla meets Trademark Kong" and famously concluded his opinion with the words: "The parties are advised to chill."^[13]

[edit] United States v. Ramirez-Lopez (2003)

The majority found the due process rights of a man accused of smuggling illegal immigrants across the border were not violated because witnesses who could have exonerated him were deported before they could be deposed. Despite winning, federal prosecutors, apparently pushed by Kozinski's dissent, dropped all charges and released the defendant.^[14][15]

[edit] United States v. Isaacs

Kozinski was assigned an obscenity case in which Ira Isaacs is accused of distributing videos depicting bestiality and other images, similar to the 1973 Miller v. California case.^[16][17] During the trial, on June 11, 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported that Kozinski had "maintained a publicly accessible Web site featuring sexually explicit photos and videos" at alex.kozinski.com. The Times reported that Kozinski's site included a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows, a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal, images of masturbation and public and contortionist sex, a slide show striptease featuring a transsexual, a series of photos of women's crotches as seen through snug fitting clothing or underwear, and content with themes of defecation and urination. Kozinski agreed that some of the material was inappropriate, but defended other content as "funny."^[18]

Calling the coverage a "baseless smear" by a disgruntled litigant, Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig pointed out that the Times had unfairly taken the videos and pictures out of context in its descriptions. He wrote that one frequently mentioned video—the video described above as a "half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal," which actually involves a man running away from a donkey—is available on YouTube,^[19] and is not, as is implied by the Times article, an example of bestiality. He also argued that the Kozinski family's right to privacy was violated when the disgruntled litigant exposed the private files which were not intended for public viewing. Lessig compared this to breaking and entering a private residence.^[20]

Kozinski initially refused to comment on disqualifying himself,^[21] then granted a 48-hour stay after the prosecutor requested time to explore "a potential conflict of interest."^[18] On June 13, Kozinski petitioned an ethics panel to investigate his own conduct. He asked Chief Justice John Roberts to assign the inquiry to a panel of judges outside the 9th Circuit's jurisdiction. Also, he said that his son, Yale, and his family or friends may have been responsible for posting some of the material.^[22][23]

Kozinski had previously been involved in a dispute over government monitoring of federal court employees’ computers. Administrative Office head Ralph Mecham dropped the monitoring program, but protested in the press.^[24]

On June 15, 2008, it was reported that Kozinski had recused himself from the case.^[25] On June 5, 2009, the Judicial Council of the Third Circuit issued an opinion clearing Kozinski of any wrongdoing.^[26][27]

Essayist[link]

Kozinski has won admirers across the political spectrum who praise his "common sense" decisions, his libertarian instinct, and his sense of humor.^[1] His essays have been featured in publications such as Slate, The New Yorker, The New Republic and National Review.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
• George W. Bush Supreme Court candidates

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Alex Kozinski at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alex Kozinski

• Chief Judge Alex Kozinski biography via U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Personal website at kozinski.com
• Campaign contributions made by Judge Alex Kozinski
• The Unofficial Judge Alex Kozinski Site: Comprehensive source for writings, press mentions, and more.
• Interview with Alex Kozinski and Stephen Reinhardt
• NY Times: Judge Kozinski's 'Nomination Letter' to the Judicial Hottie contest.
• Favorite Quotations of Alex Kozinski
• LA Times: The 9th Circuit's New No. 1
• Chief Judge Alex Kozinski moderated discussion with U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan on CSPAN - July 23, 2009