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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is an edgy place these days.

Conservatives -- including a majority in the House of Representatives -- are offended by its rulings, Republicans in Washington, D.C., want to split it up, and the media can't cover it properly.

So now, with split opponents lobbying feverishly to defeat a budget-bill rider that would divide the court, there's a new source of agitation for those who want to keep the court intact: N. Randy Smith, an Idaho state court judge, is a potential nominee for a seat that some say should stay in California. Opponents say it's an example of D.C.'s desire to whittle down the state's influence on the courts.

The problem for some is that Smith is set to be nominated for the seat vacated by Senior Judge Stephen Trott, a California judge who moved to Idaho after he was appointed to the 9th Circuit.

"The Trott seat was a California seat," Chief Judge Mary Schroeder said last week.

That's Sen. Dianne Feinstein's take, too. "I would object to naming a judge from Idaho to a 9th Circuit seat that has been held traditionally by a Californian," she wrote in a Nov. 22 e-mail to The Recorder. "There are plenty of very suitable people from our state and [President Bush] should choose a nominee from California."

Feinstein said nominating Smith would unfairly shift a second judgeship to Idaho (the filibustered ranching lobbyist William Myers III is nominated for the other Idaho seat) at California's expense.

"You are asking to add that allocation for Idaho, even though California is already seriously underrepresented on the 9th Circuit," she wrote in a letter to Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig earlier this year.

But several 9th Circuit observers say the Republicans are basically free to shift that balance as they see fit.

Indeed, said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who follows the 9th Circuit, it's a well-worn political maneuver.

"The decision is often made ad hoc with negotiations among the senators from the region, especially those of the president's party," he wrote in an e-mail.

But that doesn't change the proportions.

"It always seemed a little odd that Idaho would have two seats," said Arthur Hellman, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who studies the 9th Circuit.