Dylan Smith at the Tucson Sentinel reports that the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to the City of Tucson’s request for an en banc review of the federal district court panels’ 2-1 split decision last November regarding the City of Tucson’s “hybrid” election system.
En banc hearings are not favored, Rule 35, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, “and ordinarily will not be ordered unless:
(1) en banc consideration is necessary to secure or maintain uniformity of the court’s decisions; or
(2) the proceeding involves a question of exceptional importance.”
It takes “a majority of the circuit judges who are in regular active service and who are not disqualified to order that an appeal or other proceeding be heard or reheard by the court of appeals en banc,” which seems to favor the City of Tucson’s appeal (all previous legal challenges to the City of Tucson’s “hybrid” election system resulted in the election system being upheld by the courts).