which tests a multivariate model of judicial decisions on the constitutionality of the federal sentencing guidelines. At the time of the en banc filing (May), six Democratic appointees and five Republican appointees sat on the Sixth Circuit: Carter appointees Martin; Reagan appointees Boggs and Norris;' H.W.
INCENTIVES ON THE U.S. COURTS OF APPEALS
The exception can be seen in highly politicized circles, where the attitude model can have explanatory power. Our results indicate only limited support for the attitudinal model and greater support for a managerial model, illustrating a paradoxical implication of managerial judgment.
The Attitudinal Model
The Role of Policy Preferences in
For a detailed discussion of the history and modern use of en banc review, see generally Tracey E. Songer, Consensual and Nonconsensual Decisions in Unanimous Opinions of the United States Courts of Appeals, 26 AM.
The Role of Policy Preferences in
Segal & Donald Songer, Strategic Auditing in a Political Hierarchy: An Information Model of the Supreme Court's Certiorari Decisions, 94 AM. However, the model does not respond to one of the most dramatic recent changes in the work of appellate courts: an almost.
The Managerial Judging Model
LEADERSHIP ON THE LOWER FEDERAL COURTS
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the "first among equals", or at least he can be.75 Specific courts often are. Ahmed Taha's incorporation of the workload variable into a study of district judge disclosure decisions is an example. Ricks, The Perils of Unpublished Non-Precedential Federal Appellate Opinions: A Case Study of the Substantive Due Process State-Created Danger Doctrine in One Circuit, 81 WASH.
Danelski, The Influence of the Chief Justice in the Decisional Process, in AMERICAN COURT SYSTEMS: READINGS IN JDICIAL PROCESS AND BEHAVIOR 506, 506 (Sheldon.. 2008] CHIEF JUDGE. known by the name of the Chief: the “Warren Court” is shorthand for numerous landmark decisions and for a specific jurisprudential philosophy.7 6 The institutional responsibilities of the Chief Justice can have clear political implications.77 The Independent Counsel Statute granted the Chief Justice virtually unfettered discretion to appoint a panel that in turn, called the Independent Counsel.7 8 Other, less obvious political powers, such as the granting of opinions when they are in the majority and the privilege of the conference to speak first and vote last, have a substantial policy interest.79 Cross & Stefanie Lindquist, Doctrinal and Strategic Influences of the Chief Justice: The Decisive Significance of the Chief Justice, 154 U. Kobylka, Leadership on the Supreme Court of the United States: Chief Justice Burger and the Establishment Clause, 42 W.
49(d) (“The Chief Justice of the United States shall nominate and appoint three circuit court judges or judges, one of whom shall be a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to such division of the Court . No more shall be appointed than one judge or judge or senior or retired judge or judge to such division of a particular court.”). An exception may be Learned Hand's leadership of the Second Circuit in the 1940s and early 1950s, which has led some to call it the Hand Court. Chief Justice Wilfred Feinberg, for example, reported that "[i]n the Second Circuit, it is the Chief Justice's responsibility to select and organize the composition of the three-judge panels." Wilfred Feinberg, Office of the Chief Judge of a Federal Court of Appeals, 53 FORDHAM L.
The Creation and Selection of Chief Judges
The Judiciary Act of 1948 formalized the senior judicial position as "Chief Justice" for each circuit and conferred administrative authority. A district judge held that the 1948 Act merely produced an "altered nomenclature of rather minor importance" because the senior most judge became the Chief Justice. The Senate Report on the Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982 explained that under the Evarts Act, “a judge who becomes chief justice .
The purpose of the revision was to solve the first problem with a maximum mandate and to solve the latter with the beginning of the chief justice's mandate. In 1975, the Hruska Commission to Review the Structure of the Federal Appellate Court System and Internal Procedures recommended a shift to a single seven-year term in order to "minimize the influence of a chief justice who lacks administrative skills, allowing chief justices who are good administrators long enough to have a beneficial effect on the working of their counties." Hruska Commission, Recommendations for Change, 67 F.R.D. The chief judge shall be either the youngest circuit judge over sixty-four who has served for at least one year or, if no judge meets these criteria, the oldest active judge who has not previously served as chief judge.
The statute provides that a chief justice may voluntarily retire by retiring, taking senior status, or informing the Chief Justice.113 A chief justice may exercise the third option for any reason and continue as an active judge on the court. While roughly equal numbers of Democratic and Republican nominees have served as chief justice since 1948, the relative number during each period reflects the political affiliation of the Presidents who controlled the nominations during those years. 45(c) ("If the chief justice wishes to be relieved of his duties as chief judge while retaining his active status as a circuit judge, he may so certify to the Chief Justice of the United States.").
The Real and Potential Power of Chief Judges
The Chief Judge on a Panel
Formal Authority
In addition, the Judicial Conference Regulations, as part of the Ethics Rules, require judges to obtain the approval of the Chief Justice for any paid instruction. With the en banc motion, Eighth Circuit Chief Judge Vogel heard a cover letter to his colleagues that subtly encourages en banc review. 331 (providing that the Chief Justice shall invite the Chief Justice of each circuit to become a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States); id.
provided, that the Chief Judge of each circuit may call and hold circuit court conferences which shall include district judges as well as invited members of the bar; id. Cameron wrote: "The idea that the Chief Justice can thus promulgate the judges of the United States in a state to achieve a desired result is, I think, quite foreign to any fair idea of the proper working of the judicial process." Id. And some courts have issued local rules mandating random assignment with the usual limitations dictated by the location of oral arguments and the availability of judges.136 These limitations may, of course, be influenced by the chief justice.
Chicago Bar Council, Appraisal of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 43 DEPAUL L. This gave the court access to different parts of the circuit and also allowed some judges to sit closer to home. Former Chief Justice Wald argued that “the line between administration and content must be very clear and clean.
Informal Powers
Furthermore, the Chief Justice would be very familiar with the voting behavior of the person next in line. A chief justice has greater potential power when she is a member of the party in control of the court. A Chief Justice's decision to voluntarily resign will be related to the reasons for leaving the Chief Justice profession.
Sobeloff, the accomplished Chief Justice of the 4th Circuit, lacked majority support for strong desegregation, as did Elbert P. A Chief Justice is assigned to the term in which she began her Chief Justiceship (since the statute for that term would dictate her term limits). If party control does not affect a chief justice's tenure, we would expect the chief's party to generally align with the circuit.
Thus, it is more likely that a boss is a member of the majority party than the minority party. And the attitudinal variables do not affect the percentage of the term completed by the Chief Justice (linear model). Only the probit model yields a statistically significant result: the probability of a chief justice resigning early increases when the successor is of the same party.
Party is based on the party of the president who appointed the court judge. A chief justice who resigns when the successor is from the same party is 17% less likely to have completed his term.
Managerial Judging Effects
The chief justiceship changed from chief executive to ministerial head: In the 1960s and most of the 1970s, the number of circuit judges remained below one hundred and caseloads below 20,000. Thus, workload can limit the ability of the chief justice to achieve her policy goals while in the office is. Political scientists, jurists, and judges have debated the relative role of law and politics in the decisions of appellate judges.
The real world of these decisions includes the judges' caseload and the growth of legislation. Perhaps the Chief Justice is uniquely placed; the chief has the most potential policy-making power of any judge in a particular court (circuit or supreme court), but is also most likely to be influenced by workload. The term limit itself may bear part of the blame - it may have diluted the credit.
We assume that the decision is influenced by several variables whose value depends on the particular Chief Justice. For monotonic variables such as months as chief judge, the interpretation of the OLS and MLE results is fairly straightforward. For non-monotonic variables such as circuit composition and successor identity, neither the linear regression nor the probit model takes into account the value of the variable in earlier periods while the chief justice remained in office.
Chief Justice Appointed by Democratic President District Majority Appointed by Democratic President Chief Justice and District Majority of Same Party. The dependent variable is the percentage of terms the chief has served (0 to 100 scale), and the linear regression model is estimated with OLS.
