"The argument for not appointing any more appeals judges was that the caseload was light enough, that no more were needed.
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This is of course, completely and totally false. One only needs to look at the stats to see that, depending on circuit, they end up with something like 3 new appeals per day on the low side, and 40 new appeals per day on the high side.
This is of course, completely and totally false. One only needs to look at the stats to see that, depending on circuit, they end up with something like 3 new appeals per day on the low side, and 40 new appeals per day on the high side.
http://www.uscourts.gov/Viewer.aspx?doc=/uscourts/Statistics...
Given the amount of time and effort it takes to decide a single appeal, the caseload is not "light" by any stretch of the imagination.
Pendency is huge (even though very slowly decreasing on average)
These stats also don't count the time it actually takes to hear argument on cases, etc. Just the number of filings.