The American JudiciaryBaldwin, Simeon E. (Simeon Eben)
History
The American Judiciary
Baldwin, Simeon E. (Simeon Eben)
Courts -- United States; Law -- United States -- History
The Supreme Court is held at Washington. There is a Chief
Justice with eight associate justices, and each is also assigned
for circuit duty as a judge of the Circuit Court of the United
States in one of nine judicial circuits into which the country is
divided. Originally there were but six judges, and each was
required to hold two circuits a year in each district in his
circuit. They were assigned to the circuits in pairs, and both
sat together with the District Judge. The consequence was that
three-fourths of their time was spent in traveling from one court
town to another. They complained of this to Congress through the
President in 1792, and the next year it was provided that Circuit
Courts might be held by one justice, alone or with the District
Judge. In 1801, an ultimate reduction of the number to five was
provided for. They were to devote their time entirely to the
Supreme Court, while the Circuit Courts were to be held by a new
set of eighteen Circuit Judges. In 1802, they had only ten cases
pending before them, and the average for some years had not
exceeded that number. For this and other reasons mentioned
elsewhere the Act of 1801 was repealed by the next Congress. In
1807, another Justice of the Supreme Court was added and two more
in 1837.
Each circuit has a judicial establishment of its own, and is
composed of a certain number of judicial districts. Of these
there are in the whole United States about eighty. The smaller
States constitute one district. In the larger ones there are
several.
Each district generally has its own judge, called the District
Judge, and always its own court, called the District Court of
that district. Each circuit has several Circuit Judges, whose
main work is to sit in a court held in each circuit, styled the
Circuit Court of Appeals. They can also hold a District Court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account