Rise of Judicial Management in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, 1955-2000This is the first book-length study of a federal district court to analyze the revolutionary changes in its mission, structure, policies, and procedures over the past four decades. As Steven Harmon Wilson chronicles the court's attempts to keep pace with an expanding, diversifying caseload, he situates those efforts within the social, cultural, and political expectations that have prompted the increase in judicial seats from four in 1955 to the current nineteen. Federal judges have progressed from being simply referees of legal disputes to managers of expanding courts, dockets, and staffs, says Wilson. The Southern District of Texas offers an especially instructive model by which to study this transformation. Not only does it contain a varied population of Hispanics, African Americans, and whites, but its jurisdiction includes an international border and some of the busiest seaports in the United States. Wilson identifies three areas of judicial management in which the shift has most clearly manifested itself. Through docket and case management judges have attempted to rationalize the flow of work through the litigation process. Lastly, and most controversially, judges have sought to bring "constitutionally flawed" institutions into compliance through "structural reform" rulings in areas such as housing, education, employment, and voting. Wilson draws on sources ranging from judicial biography and oral-history interviews to case files, published opinions, and administrative memoranda. Blending legal history with social science, this important new study ponders the changing meaning of federal judgeship as it shows how judicial management has both helped and hindered the resolution of legal conflicts and the protection of civil rights. |
From inside the book
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... example, resulted in part from new pub- lic law cases, but also from increased population, more complex business, and, especially after 1960, new or amended federal laws. The rising demand led the Congress periodically to increase the ...
... example , the Congress established the office of U.S. magistrate ; magistrates were granted the authority to arraign defendants , record pleas , and schedule felony trials to be conducted by a judge . A federal district judge can also ...
... example, the judges stepped out of their traditional neutral stance to broker and to supervise settlements. The ... examples of judicial activities in the Southern District of Texas, moreover, public law did not immediately introduction 9.
... example , was to persuade the plaintiffs to with- draw their motion for an injunction until he convened a formal hearing . He sought to avoid publicity - and therefore to minimize demagoguery on both sides by ar- ranging informal ...
... example , that even the children of migrant workers entering school four months behind the rest of the grade were to be tested with all of the students who entered at that time . This would preserve the objective basis of comparison ...
Contents
1 | |
11 | |
Legislation Litigation and Judicial Economy | 50 |
The Rules and Exceptions of Border Justice | 93 |
Managing Our Federalism in the Southern District | 140 |
Judicial Management of Triethnic Integration | 189 |
Federal Criminal Justice on Trial in the 1970s | 233 |
Adjuncts and the Oversight of Corporate Misconduct | 281 |
Masters Magistrates and Managerial Judges | 327 |
Just Speedy and Inexpensive Resolutions | 355 |
Notes | 359 |
Selected Bibliography | 521 |
Index | 547 |