Fox News and its viewers certainly hope so:

For many conservatives, the words "9th Circuit" mean more than just a federal appeals court in California. The words embody everything they think is wrong with liberal activism, West Coast politics and the judges who tried to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Those same conservatives think their new clout following President Bush's re-election may help put some weight behind a movement to split up the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, leaving the 9th in California, creating a new 12th Circuit for neighboring Idaho, Arizona, Montana and Nevada; and a new 13th Circuit for Washington, Alaska and Oregon.

If this were to occur, one of the last bastions for liberalism in the nation would disappear, and most on the "left coast" would be very disappointed. Is it really going to happen, though?

By a vote of 205 to 194, the House on Oct. 5 passed an amendment by Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, to the Bankruptcy Judgeship Act that would divide the 9th Circuit into three parts.

If the measure could only get 205 votes in the House, there's no way it would get 50 in the Senate (let alone the 60 to invoke cloture). As a result, I wouldn't worry about this nearly as much as this Fox News story might have me otherwise do.