To remove the authority of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to sit en banc with fewer than all circuit judges in regular active service.

H.R. 1064 proposes a change to how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reviews its most significant legal cases. Currently, because of its large size, the Ninth Circuit is the only federal appeals court allowed to hold "en banc" hearings—where the court reconsidered a decision made by a smaller three-judge panel—using only a limited group of 11 judges. This bill would require all active judges on the court to participate in these reviews, bringing the Ninth Circuit’s procedures in line with every other federal appellate circuit in the country.

For citizens, this change would mean that major legal rulings affecting the Western United States—including cases on civil rights, environmental regulations, and federal laws—would be decided by the full court rather than a smaller subset of judges. While this could ensure that a broader consensus of the court’s judges is represented in final rulings, it could also lead to longer wait times for court decisions due to the logistical challenges of coordinating nearly 30 judges for a single case.