WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye announced today that the Senate included a change in federal law in the Fiscal Year 1998 budget bill for the federal Judiciary requiring that every state in a federal judicial circuit be entitled to at least one judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hawaii has not had an active judge seated on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since the Honorable Herbert Y. C. Choy took senior status in October 1984. The provision would mandate a judge for Hawaii on the federal appeals court.

"This is a positive step for Hawaii's federal legal system, which has been unrepresented on the federal court of appeals for thirteen years. The current situation is both highly unusual and inappropriate when you consider that every other state in the Ninth Circuit has at least one judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals. There is no excuse for Hawaii not to have a seat on this court, especially when there are presently nine unfilled vacancies on this bench," stated Senator Inouye.

The Fiscal Year 1998 Judiciary appropriations bill also includes a provision splitting the Ninth Circuit in two. The current Ninth Circuit Court, based in San Francisco, accepts federal cases on appeal from Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Republican senators from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho have sought to create their own federal circuit, claiming that the Ninth Circuit is overburdened and inefficient.

The split these senators have proposed in the Fiscal Year 1998 Judiciary appropriations bill places the State of Hawaii with the Pacific Northwest states in a new Twelfth Circuit. If a split of the Ninth Circuit was inevitable, Hawaii's federal and state judges and bar associations, its U.S. Attorney, and the Hawaii Attorney General have stated their preference to be aligned with the smaller states in the Pacific Northwest.

Last week, the Senate by a vote of 55-45, rejected California Senator Dianne Feinstein's amendment calling for the appointment of an expert commission to assess the caseloads and makeup of all of the current eleven federal judicial circuits.

"The Republican majority's proposal to split the Ninth Circuit in two still has a long way to go in the Congressional process. I expect a vigorous debate in the conference committee with the House of Representatives," stated Senator Inouye.

The Fiscal Year 1998 Departments of Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary Appropriations Bill will now face a joint House-Senate Conference and final Senate vote before its transmittal to the White House.