On October 5, 2004, The US House of Representatives voted 205-194 to divide the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The legislation would have left California, Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands in the circuit while placing Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and Montana in a new Twelfth Circuit, and Alaska, Oregon and Washington into the Thirteenth Circuit. The legislation was passed to ease the rapidly-increasing caseload. Despite passing in the House, the amendment, which was attached to a larger bill authorizing 58 new federal judgeships, failed to pass in the Senate.

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