UNITED STATES COURT of APPEALS

for the NINTH CIRCUIT

November 6, 1998

BY cc:MAIL

The Honorable Byron R. White, Chairman
Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals
Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building
One Columbus Circle
Washington, D.C. 20544

Re: Draft Report

Dear Mr. Justice White:

We are active and senior judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Having reviewed the draft report, and in response to your request for comments, we agree with the Commission that the optimum size of a federal appellate court is between seven and eleven active judges. We are persuaded, however, that the same reasons which support the Commission's recommendation to restructure the Court of Appeals into divisions even more forcefully compels the need for a formal split of the Ninth Circuit itself.

We jointly request, therefore, that the Commission give serious consideration to revising its recommendation and call for realignment of the Ninth Circuit into two or more newly constituted circuits. The five Pacific Northwest states should remain intact as the keystone for one of the realigned new circuits and we endorse Options A, B and C on pages 46 through 50 in the Report to that extent.

Sincerely,

Eugene A. Wright
Senior United States Circuit Judge
Seattle, Washington

Joseph T. Sneed       
Senior United States Circuit Judge
San Francisco, California

Stephen Trott
United States Circuit Judge
Boise, Idaho

Robert R. Beezer
Senior United States Circuit Judge
Seattle, Washington

Thomas G. Nelson
United States Circuit Judge
Boise, Idaho

Diarmuid F. O=Scannlain
United States Circuit Judge
Portland, Oregon

Andrew J. Kleinfeld
United States Circuit Judge
Fairbanks, Alaska