FRESNO BEE: FEDERAL JUDGES IN THE CENTRAL VALLEY ARE OVERWORKED, HERE’S THE SOLUTION.

In 1978 the price of gas in California was under 70 cents a gallon, “Annie Hall” won best picture at the Academy Awards and the Dallas Cowboys were Super Bowl champions. That was also the last time a new judgeship was created in the U.S. District Court that oversees the Central Valley. Today the Eastern District covers 34 counties, running from the Los Angeles-Kern County line on the south to the Oregon border on the north. Key cities are Fresno, Sacramento, Modesto, Bakersfield and Redding. The district includes four federal prisons; nearly 200 federal buildings; 13 national forests; nine national parks, including Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon; 19 state prisons; and 923,000 acres of federal land.

Nearly 8.5 million people live in the district, and the six judges hearing cases are badly overworked. Each Eastern District judge handles an average of 1,300 cases at any given moment. That is 2.6 times more than the average for judges in all federal courts in the western United States. To further illustrate the problem, the Eastern District has one judge for every 1,362,552 residents. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, says that is “by far the highest in the state of California.” Any crime committed on federal property is handled by the U.S. courts, as are any violations of federal law or the Constitution. In addition, inmates in state prisons are adept at filing cases alleging their civil rights were violated, which becomes a federal matter.

The Bee Editorial Board in 2019 urged Congress to work to get more judges for the Eastern District. But little happened. Now Costa and two other colleagues — fellow Democrat Doris Matsui of Sacramento and Republican Jay Obernolte of Hesperia — have authored a bill they call the CASE Load Act, which stands for “Creating Additional Seats to Ease Legally Overburdened Adjudicators’ Dockets Act. ” Its bill number is House Resolution 3223. FIVE MORE JUDGES The bill would authorize the hiring of five new judges spread over six years. Federal judges are paid more than $200,000 annually. “Skyrocketing caseloads and staffing shortages in the Eastern District Court of California have created a judicial emergency that will only worsen if we don’t address it now,” Costa said in a news release. “Over a million Californians lack equal access to justice. My legislation will fairly address the need to ensure the court can fulfill the American promise of the federal judicial system.”

That last point is important. In 2021 the Eastern District had to halt hearing civil cases because of the shortage of judges. Only criminal cases were conducted for a time because the law affords defendants in criminal cases the right to a speedy trial. That right does not extend to civil cases. Costa notes that court facilities in Fresno, Sacramento and Bakersfield have the capacity to handle additional judges. Matsui likened the judge shortage to a “judicial emergency” that requires the investment of five new judges. 

Without question, other Valley congressmen — Republicans David Valadao and Tom McClintock and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — must support this effort. California’s junior senator, Democrat Alex Padilla, is carrying similar legislation in that chamber. Congress must act to get more judicial positions for the Eastern District. Failing to do that would be a miscarriage of justice in a real sense.

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