Montana’s 9th Circuit Judge Sid Thomas to become next chief judge

[Disir]

On Dec. 1, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sidney R. Thomas of Billings will become the circuit’s new chief judge.

Running the Ninth Circuit, the country’s biggest appellate circuit, could be compared to being the CEO of a gigantic company.

The circuit encompasses nine western states, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, has a total of 435 judges and handles 20 percent of the nation’s federal caseload. The circuit, on average, gets about 12,000 appeals a year. It's headquarters are in San Francisco.

This is the part that I think is cool:

The Ninth Circuit is considered to be on the cutting edge of the circuits for using technology to make the courts more accessible to the public and lawyers. The circuit provides live audio and video streaming of almost all case arguments and has updated its website to be more user friendly.

A YouTube video of a September hearing on baseball’s Barry Bonds appeal of his conviction of obstruction of justice has drawn more than 5,300 views. And recent oral arguments on three gay marriage cases attracted more than 3,000 viewers.

Thomas, who is involved with the court’s IT staff, said Kozinski has put all misconduct orders involving complaints against judges on the website. “We have to be transparent on misconduct. There’s no question about that,” he said.

Montana s 9th Circuit Judge Sid Thomas to become next chief judge

This is great.