It’s common belief among conservatives fed-up with judicial activism that the 9^th Circuit Court is out of control.

After all, with ruling after ruling, the American people have seen the powers granted to the executive and legislative branches seemingly brought to a screeching halt with the mere bang of a gavel from some faraway district judge either on the West Coast or Hawaii.

But as it turns out, this is more than just a gripe leveled by conservatives who are tired of seeing lower-level federal judges from the most liberal and most-overturned federal circuit get in the way of policies they like.

At a recent hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, Vanderbilt University law professor Brian Fitzpatrick broke down the numbers and the policies behind the phenomenon, as well as the dangers of concentrating too much power in the hands of a few federal judges.

If restoring some semblance of the framer’s vision to our system of government is your kind of thing, his opening remarks are definitely worth the watch.

Watch the clip on C-SPAN, here.

A copy of Professor Fitzpatrick’s prepared remarks can be found here.

And if you want a funnier take on the whole situation, you can view the video the CHB team put together last year about this.

WARNING: BEFORE ANYONE IN THE LEGACY MEDIA THROWS ANOTHER HYSTERICAL HISSY FIT, THE ABOVE VIDEO IS SATIRE. NEITHER I, NOR ANY MEMBER OF THE CRTV FAMILY HAS EVER HAD A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH THE 9^TH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS.