Appellate Court Vows Return to S.D. : One-Week Session in City Is First for 9th Circuit Justices

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in San Diego for a first-ever week of hearings, will almost certainly be back--but not on a regular basis, Chief Judge James Browning said Wednesday.

“The cork having come out of the bottle, the chances are very good the court is going to be back,” Browning told nearly 200 attorneys at a luncheon sponsored by the San Diego County Bar Assn. at the Westgate Hotel. “At what intervals it will be remains a question.”

For years, local attorneys have campaigned for hearings by the court’s three-judge panels in San Diego, second in size to Los Angeles among cities in the 9th Circuit. Their time and their clients’ money, they contend, is wasted in daylong trips to Los Angeles and San Francisco, the court’s headquarters, for brief arguments before the appeals judges.

Browning said it was unrealistic to expect that San Diego would join Seattle and Portland on the list of places where the court meets regularly. “You need a lot of facilities if you’re going to sit every month in a location,” he said, including a library, clerical staff and offices.

However, Browning said lawyers could count on the 120-year-old court not waiting as long to make a return visit to San Diego as it did to make its inaugural trip.

“We came here because it was the consensus of the judges of our court that San Diego was too important a source of the business of our court to ignore San Diego,” he said. Browning, Judge Charles Wiggins and Judge Melvin Brunelli were scheduled to hear arguments in 29 cases by Friday.

The 9th Circuit, with 28 judges, is the largest appeals court in the nation, and it covers the largest territory--seven Western states, Hawaii, Alaska and the South Pacific territories of the United States.

Lawyers who have fought to bring the appeals court to San Diego were pleased with Browning’s remarks.

“It sounded good to me,” said attorney Paul Wells. “It sounded to me like he said they will be back.”

John Cleary, a defense lawyer who wrote other lawyers last week urging a large turnout at events welcoming the judges to San Diego, was equally enthusiastic.

“Without binding themselves to any routine, the feeling was that when the cases justify it for one panel, they’re going to sit down here,” he said.