Overwhelming caseloads, substantial litigation delays and spiraling costs have prompted Congress to take a fresh look at expanding the number of judges sitting on lower federal courts. In a hearing Wednesday held by the House Committee on the Judiciary, both congress members and witnesses characterized the situation as a crisis that has been decades in the making. “For 20 years-plus we’ve been in a judicial emergency,” Chief District Judge Kimberly Mueller of the Eastern District of California testified to the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. The Judicial Confer…
