The 14th Circuit

Abstract

2025 will mark the fifteenth anniversary of Professor Stephen Legomsky’s landmark article proposing “radical surgery” on American immigration adjudication. Professor Legomsky argued for creating an Article III Court of Appeals for Immigration (CAI), replacing both the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and the immigration jurisdiction of the regional circuit courts.

For Professor Legomsky, his restructuring would: (1) reduce costs, delays, and needless duplications inherent in how the BIA and regional circuits functioned; (2) enhance uniformity of immigration case law; (3) ensure greater independence by a now nationwide Article III appellate court; (4) allow for this new court to regain key subject matter jurisdiction stripped in 1996; and (5) appeal to ideologically diverse stakeholders. However, as the years have passed, reformers have eschewed Professor Legomsky’s plan and pursued a different route: advocating for Congressional, Article I immigration courts.

While supportive of this latter call, this study nevertheless contends that more drastic measures are required to solve the immigration adjudication crisis. It thus resurrects, defends, and – crucially – adapts Professor Legomsky’s CAI to the present moment. To begin, with the existence of the eleven regional circuit courts, the DC Circuit, and the Federal Circuit, this study refers to the proposed appellate immigration court as the 14th Circuit.

More substantively, the focus is on certain queries Professor Legomsky adjacently addressed, but which are now extremely significant. For example, might a 14th Circuit put at risk favorable judgments serving as good law in places like the Second and Ninth Circuits? Why would advocates who have fought to secure the rights of immigrants in these regions cede jurisdiction to an otherwise unknown court? Furthermore, who should sit on this court? Why is such a court necessary at all? And what is the political feasibility of passing this measure today?

Upon answering these questions, this study concludes that, if constructed properly, a 14th Circuit for immigration could well accomplish major reforms – at a reduced cost and with less delay. This court could also accommodate conflicting political priorities that have stifled progress and provide for a fairer process for this country’s perpetually vulnerable noncitizen population.

Keywords: Immigration Law, Federal Courts, Stephen Legomsky, Court of Appellate Immigration