From The Tulsa World:

New U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has become the court’s designated “circuit justice” for the 10th federal judicial circuit, which includes Oklahoma.

A circuit justice receives and may decide emergency requests to the Supreme Court from a particular circuit until the high court takes final action. Emergency matters include requests for stays of execution, restraining orders and postponements in the effective date of a lower court order.

The 13 federal circuit courts are one step below the Supreme Court.

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