For anyone else who always wondered what this circuit thing is and what happened to versions one through four: appeal courts in the USA seem to be numbered one through eleven, each having a few states they serve, and the group of states is called a "circuit". The word apparently has a meaning of a geographic region, so that's where that comes from (I only heard the word used for electric circuits, besides seeing this Nth court name a few times now). The judges in higher courts (like these, it seems) are chosen by the currently elected president whenever seats in the court become vacant, if I remember correctly.
What's still unclear to me is why the article consistently calls it "the conservative fifth circuit court" as though that is part of its name (or as though there is another nonconservative one), whereas Wikipedia uses no such phrasing that I can find. Is that an artifact of the news medium being of "the other side" and wanting to emphasise that most of the judges were chosen by a party they don't like? Or are most judges party members, or how is this label decided? And isn't the whole point of being a judge that you're impartial, are they subtly alleging the court is partial to whatever laws are made by one of the two major parties or something?
Edit: I'm not sure what this reads like to y'all but it was meant as a genuine question with what I've already figured out for anyone else who doesn't know this (probably most international visitors, I figured)
What's still unclear to me is why the article consistently calls it "the conservative fifth circuit court" as though that is part of its name (or as though there is another nonconservative one), whereas Wikipedia uses no such phrasing that I can find. Is that an artifact of the news medium being of "the other side" and wanting to emphasise that most of the judges were chosen by a party they don't like? Or are most judges party members, or how is this label decided? And isn't the whole point of being a judge that you're impartial, are they subtly alleging the court is partial to whatever laws are made by one of the two major parties or something?
Edit: I'm not sure what this reads like to y'all but it was meant as a genuine question with what I've already figured out for anyone else who doesn't know this (probably most international visitors, I figured)