Explosive cases flow to US Supreme Court from ‘bold’ regional court

June 12 (Reuters) - When three conservative judges sitting on a New Orleans-based U.S. appeals court declared the funding mechanism approved by Congress for the federal consumer financial watchdog agency unconstitutional, they said the nation's history of separating powers among the branches of government compelled their ruling.

It turns out these judges - all appointed by Republican former President Donald Trump - got the history wrong, the U.S. Supreme Court decided on May 16 in a 7-2 decision authored by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, saving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from an existential threat.

It was one of several far-reaching decisions by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Supreme Court has reviewed during its current term, which began in October and is expected to conclude by the end of June. ... The Supreme Court, which itself has a 6-3 conservative majority, has yet to issue rulings in most of this term's highest-profile cases arising from the 5th Circuit, including one on the abortion pill and two on gun rights.

The 5th Circuit is one of the 13 federal appellate courts - and perhaps the most conservative of them - that are one step below the Supreme Court. It handles appeals from federal trial courts in the Republican-led states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Cases from the 5th Circuit have represented an increasing share of the Supreme Court's workload in recent years, according to Feldman. It heard 10 cases from the 5th Circuit this term, deciding two thus far, including the CFPB reversal. The only lower court with more cases reviewed, at 12, is the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit, which spans nine western states including California and two U.S. territories.

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