The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is the largest and most liberal federal appellate court in the United States, having jurisdiction over many Western states stretching from Arizona in the south to Alaska and Montana in the north, and including the massive states of California and Washington in between. It covers nearly one-fifth of the American population. Twenty-eight active judges and another 20 part-time senior judges sit on the Ninth Circuit, by far the largest number of any federal circuit.
The Ninth Circuit is overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court far more than any other circuit, and far beyond proportion even given its larger size:[1]
The 9th Circuit decides more than 6,000 cases annually. It heard 22 cases en banc in 2006.
Rush Limbaugh has referred to the Ninth Circuit as the "Ninth Circus" based on its extremely liberal decisions that are frequently reversed.