Rocky Mountain Judgeship Act
The Rocky Mountain Judgeship Act would add three new federal district judgeships: two for the District of Colorado and one for the District of Idaho. It also makes technical changes to reflect these new seats in the federal judiciary’s official count and location listings. Specifically, the bill increases the total number of authorized district judges for Colorado to 9 and for Idaho to 3, and it adds Fort Collins to Colorado’s list of cities under the district court’s jurisdiction (replacing a prior reference to Sterling alone with Sterling and Fort Collins). The President would appoint these new judges with Senate confirmation. The effect is to expand capacity in these Western states’ federal courts and potentially ease caseloads and backlogs.
Key Points
- 1Creates 3 new federal district judgeships: 2 for Colorado, 1 for Idaho.
- 2Updates authorized counts in the judiciary’s statute: Colorado total becomes 9 judges; Idaho total becomes 3 judges.
- 3Adds Fort Collins to the list of Colorado locations associated with the district court (replacing the old listing that included Sterling but not Fort Collins).
- 4Requires presidential appointment with Senate confirmation for the new judges.
- 5Includes conforming amendments to reflect the new numbers and locations in the applicable table in Title 28 of the U.S. Code.