Judicial Conference of the United States

AuthorPeter Graham Fish
Pages1452-1453

Page 1452

The Judicial Conference of the United States is a legacy of WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT'S chief justiceship. Its establishment in 1922 constituted a part of the former President's broad campaign against progressives' demands for changes in the substance of then-prevailing federal law. Taft responded with a structural reform proposal: unprecedented administrative integration of a geographically dispersed court system manned by virtually autonomous judges. Thus, the third branch as a whole would achieve enhanced independence coincident with, and protective of, the uniqueness of the essential judicial function.

The Judicial Conference remains the linchpin of national judicial administration. From its beginnings as an annual meeting of the presiding judges of the UNITED STATES COURTS OF APPEALS chaired by the CHIEF JUSTICE, the organization's membership has grown to include a representative from one of the UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURTS in each of the eleven numbered circuits and the District of Columbia and the chief judges of those circuits, the UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT, and the COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE. Biennial meetings at Washington, held in executive session, are largely repositories for reports from an extensive committee system involving the participation of approximately two hundred federal judges. This system provides status differentiation among the more than 700-member federal judiciary, but more significantly responds to a work load spawned both by the brevity of conference sessions and by a voluminous and complex agenda associated with the growth of judicial business and personnel.

Further structural changes in the conference-related administrative organization originated in causes both within and without the third branch. Congress in 1939 established the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and provided for regional administrative units: circuit judicial councils and circuit judicial conferences. Chief Justice CHARLES EVANS HUGHES promoted the Administrative Office Act as a response to FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S 1937 " COURT-PACKING " bill, perceived by conference members as threatening executive-branch domination of the judiciary.

The new act vastly increased the functions performed by the Judicial Conference and its committees. Although the director and deputy director are appointed by the Supreme Court, the Office acts under "the supervision and direction" of the...

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