In 1975, the Commission on Revision of the Federal Court Appellate System, chaired by Senator Roman L. Hruska, recommended to the Congress, the President and Chief Justice of the United States that the geographical boundaries of the Fifth and Ninth Circuits be altered to create four circuits. This would be only the second time that the geographical boundaries would be altered since the creation of the then-existing federal circuit court system in 1891. The previous alteration was in 1929 when the Tenth Circuit was created from the then-U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

This historical analysis was prepared as background material for the Commission, and is still considered by many to be the definitive work on the division of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit. The analysis describes events surrounding the 1929 change, and discusses motivating issues that recurred during the debate of the mid-1970's.