Bill splits a big federal appeals court and changes which laws apply.
S. 5347 — Circuit Court of Appeals Reorganization Act of 2026 · Filed by Mike Lee (R-UT) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Aug 6, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill reorganizes three federal appeals courts by moving some states. The Ninth Circuit, which covers the West, gets split up. California, Oregon, Washington, Guam, Hawaii, and the Northern Mariana Islands stay together. Alaska, Idaho, and Montana move to the Eighth Circuit. Arizona and Nevada move to the Tenth Circuit. The bill erases old court decisions in five states. It replaces them with decisions from different courts. Judges keep their jobs but work for their new circuit.
Who it affects
The bill affects people and companies in Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada. It affects the federal courts in those states. It affects the judges who work there.
One thing to notice
Old court decisions no longer apply in five states. New court decisions from different circuits will apply instead.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 6 Republicans.
- Aug 6, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 6, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- circuit — A group of states that share the same federal appeals court.
- erases — Gets rid of or cancels something, like old court decisions.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (7,471 characters) on Aug 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
“Bill splits a big federal appeals court and changes which laws apply.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5347/simple Report an error