My latest installment in SCOTUSBlog calls for the return of circuit riding, with a twist:
Each term the circuit justices would be drawn at random to sit on the lower courts. The justices can pull a number out of a hat. No longer would the same justice preside over the same circuit year-after-year. Let the justices and the lower courts mix and mingle, to get the greatest flavor of how the judicial system works nationwide. Indeed, justices should rotate among the circuits every year to see the widest range of courts, across the fruited plain, with flyover country in the middle.
A more important part of this proposal is that the chief justice will ask each circuit justice to preside over one en banc oral argument of his or her circuit. These sessions could be timed when the justices do not have oral argument at the Supreme Court to minimize possible disruptions.
I also propose that the Justices should keep their home chambers outside of the swamp, and only commute when the Court is in session:
