Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-03T04:05:15.135Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Litigation Flow in Three United States Courts of Appeals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

J. Woodford Howard Jr.
J. Woodford Howard Jr.*
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

United States courts of appeals were created over four decades ago to help the Supreme Court enforce the supremacy' and uniformity of federal law. Until recently, however, their actual operations and functions in the American polity have received scant description and analysis (Carington, 1969: 542; Dolbeare, 1969: 373-404; Goldman and Jahnige, 1971; Richardson and Vines, 1970; Schick, 1970). This paper is a preliminary report of data gathered to assess the roles of the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Second, and Fifth Circuits in the federal legal system.' The report will: (1) describe the business of the three tribunals, (2) compare decisional patterns among them and the Supreme Court in the same cases, and (3) explore relationships among trial courts, intermediate courts, and the Supreme Court in the flow of federal litigation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , Fall 1973 , pp. 33 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © 1973 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Author's Note: This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the 1971 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. The author wishes to thank John E. Schofield, Joel Ish, James Hirschorn, John P. Crumrine, Jerry Goldman, Durwood Littlefield, Michael Nelson, and James S. Nathanson for help in analyzing the data. I am also grateful to Carl Baar, Matthew Crenson, Milton C. Cummings, Herbert Jacob, and Stephen V. Stephens for helpful criticism. The study was made under a fellowship granted by the Ford Foundation. However, the conclusions, opinions and other statements are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Ford Foundation.

References

Cases

Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967).Google Scholar
Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Educ, 396 U.S. 19 (1969).Google Scholar
Carter v. West Feliciana Parish School Board, 396 U.S. 290 (1970).Google Scholar
City of Greenwood v. Peacock, 384 U.S. 808 (1966).Google Scholar
Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130 (1967).Google Scholar
Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494, 525 (1951).Google Scholar
Durham v. United States, 214 F.2d 862 (D.C. Cir. 1954).Google Scholar
Easter v. District of Columbia, 361 F.2d 50 (D.C. Cir. 1966).Google Scholar
Environmental Defense Fund v. Ruckelshaus, 439 F.2d 584 (D.C. Cir. 1971); not appealed, Baltimore Sun, January 16, 1971.Google Scholar
Georgia v. Rachel, 384 U.S. 780 (1966).Google Scholar
Gojack v. United States, 384 U.S. 702 (1966).Google Scholar
Hawkins v. Town of Shaw, 437 F.2d 1286 (5th Cir. 1971).Google Scholar
Huth v. Southern Pacific Co., 417 F.2d 526 (5th Cir. 1969).Google Scholar
Isbell Enterprises v. Citizens Casualty Co., 431 F.2d 409 (5th Cir. 1970).Google Scholar
Marchetti v. United States, 390 U.S. 39 (1968).Google Scholar
Murphy v. Houma Well Service, 409 F.2d 804 (5th Cir. 1969).Google Scholar
NLR.B. v. Local 990, Amalgamated Clothing Workers, 430 F.2d 966 (5th Cir. 1970).Google Scholar
Office of Communication, United Church of Christ v. F.C.C., 359 F.2d 994 (D.C. Cir. 1966).Google Scholar
Pearson v. Northeast Airlines, 309 F.2d 553 (2d Cir. 1962), cert. denied, 372 U.S. 912 (1963).Google Scholar
Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547 (1967).Google Scholar
Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. F.C.C., 395 U.S. 367 (1969).Google Scholar
United States v. Jefferson County Board of Educ, 380 F.2d 385 (5th Cir. en banc 1967), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 840 (1967).Google Scholar
United States v. Montgomery County Board of Educ, 395 U.S. 225 (1969).Google Scholar
United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218 (1967).Google Scholar

References

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES COURTS (1950-1971) Annual Reports.Google Scholar
BELL Griffin, B. (1971) “Toward a More Efficient Federal Appeals System,” 54 Judicature 237.Google Scholar
CARRINGTON, Paul D. (1969) “Crowded Dockets and the Courts of Appeals: The Threat to the Function of Review and the National Law.” 82 Harvard Law Review 542.Google Scholar
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE (March 26, 1970) S4631.Google Scholar
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT REFORM AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ACT OF 1970, Public Law 91-358, 84 Stat. 473.Google Scholar
DOLBEARE, Kenneth M. (1969) “The Federal District Courts and Urban Public Policy,” in Joel B., GROSSMAN and Joseph, TANENHAUS (eds.) Frontiers of Judicial Research. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
FRANK, John P. (January, 1951) “The Top U.S. Commercial Court,” Fortune 92.Google Scholar
FRANKFURTER, Felix (1970) as quoted in Alexander M., BICKEL, The Supreme Court and the Idea of Progress. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
FRANKFURTER, Felix (1971) The Federal Courts Federal Judicial Center.Google Scholar
GOLDMAN, Sheldon (1968) “Conflict and Consensus in the United States Courts of Appeals,” 1968 Wisconsin Law Review 461.Google Scholar
GOLDMAN, Sheldon and Thomas P., JAHNIGE (1971) The Federal Courts as a Political System. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
McGOWAN, Carl (1969) The Organization of Judical Power in the United States. The Organization of Judical Power in the United States: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
MENDELSOHN, Robert I. (December 31, 1969) “Survey of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,” Committee on the Administration of Justice, Court Management Study.Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F. (1959) “Lower Court Checks on Supreme Court Power,” 53 American Political Science Review 1017.Google Scholar
NEW YORK TIMES, February 14, 1971.Google Scholar
RICHARDSON, Richard J. and Kenneth N., VINES (1970) The Politics of Federal Courts. The Politics of Federal Courts: Little Brown and Company.Google Scholar
SCHICK, Marvin (1970) Learned Hand's Court. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SCHUBERT, Glendon (1965) Judicial Policy-Making. Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Company.Google Scholar
SHAFROTH, Will (1967) “Survey of U.S. Courts of Appeals,” 42 Federal Rules Decisions 243.Google Scholar
SHAPIRO, Martin (1964) Law and Politics in the Supreme Court. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
SHAPIRO, Martin (1968) The Supreme Court and Administrative Agencies. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
STERN, Robert L. and Eugene, GRESSMAN (1969) Supreme Court Practice (fourth edition). Washington: Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.Google Scholar
TANENHAUS, Joseph, et al. (1963) “The Supreme Court's Certiorari Jurisdiction: Cue Theory,” in Glendon, SCHUBERT (ed.) Judicial Decision-Making. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press.Google Scholar
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (1972) Committee on the Judiciary, 92nd Congress, 1st Sess. “Survey of the United States Courts of Appeals,” Hearings to Establish a Commission on Revision of the Judicial Circuits of the United States.Google Scholar