NCJ Number
86818
Journal
Judicature Volume: 66 Issue: 6 Dated: (December/January 1983) Pages: 230-235
Date Published
1983
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Of all the proposals for relieving the U.S. Supreme Court's calendar, the most unacceptable is the one that would create a national court of appeals or any other court which would assume the decisional or screening duties of the Court.
Abstract
One means for shrinking the size of the Supreme Court calendar to manageable numbers would be the use of greater care by the Court in the selection of cases for review. Appeal to the Supreme Court should be permitted only where issues of Federal law important to the country are involved or where further review is essential to resolve conflicts between lower courts on issues of Federal constitutional or statutory law. Absent these qualifications, one trial and one appellate review is enough. Further, Congress should repeal virtually all the Court's mandatory appeal jurisdiction. Also, an immediate study should be conducted of the feasibility of Justice White's suggestion of creating new courts of appeals that would hear appeals from district courts nationwide in certain kinds of cases, thus obviating conflicts. Another suggestion by Justice White should be considered as well. It would require a court of appeals to go en banc before differing with another court of appeals and to make the first en banc decision the nationwide rule. All proposals for the creating of a national court of appeals or any other court to which would be assigned some of the Court's tasks should be rejected. Inevitably the Court's standing would be undermined by the implementation of these proposals.