Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

WASHINGTON -- Two circuit courts serving the western United States would be better than one, according to the House Judiciary Committee, which voted 22-12 in favor of dividing the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"The 9th Circuit is too large, too cumbersome," Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., a former California attorney general, said after Thursday's vote.

Opponents said the move was based partly on Republican opposition to some of the court's rulings, among them the 2002 opinion that declared the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional when recited in public schools.