NCJ Number
91168
Date Published
1983
Length
361 pages
Annotation
Eleven chapters offer a broad perspective on the judicial process, looking at all types and levels of courts in the United States, explaining what courts do, and linking courts to politics.
Abstract
A review of the organization of courts examines court structure, jurisdiction, courts' origins and development, and recent Federal controversies (reorganizing Federal courts, redrawing the circuit boundaries, establishing a new national court of appeals). A chapter on administration in the Federal and State courts and the politics of court reform notes that such reform involves policies that shift judicial administration from local control and independence to centralized court management. Other elements of court reform are centralized rulemaking and judicial budgeting, full State financing, merit selection of judges, and judicial discipline and removal mechanisms. Partisan politics and merit selection are considered in a chapter on judicial selection, which notes that a variety of methods --- partisan election, nonpartisan election, gubernatorial appointment, legislative appointment, and merit selection -- are used by the 50 States to select judges. The intrusion of politics into the nomination/selection of Federal judges is exemplified by the experience of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. Approaches to settling civil disputes -- mediation, individual methods, and court settlements -- are highlighted. One chapter discusses the roles of prosecutors, judges, and defuse lawyers in settling cases in criminal courts, the movement of criminal cases, and plea bargaining. Other sections focus on trials and appeals, law and decisionmaking, and judicial policymaking. A final chapter examines the impact of judicial policy, using as examples such controversial issues as prayer and Bible reading in public schools, school integration, and abortion. Chapter notes and an index are provided.