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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... opinion . " >> 48 Estes took the hint and ordered Mansfield High to admit all qualified students regardless of race . Segregationists threatened violence if the school officials tried to implement that order . Governor Shivers ...
... opinion, in which he declared that he “prefer[red] to reach [the conclu- sion] by a slightly different and certainly shorter road.” His thinking had advanced significantly in the decade since he had rejected, in the 1951 La Grange case ...
... opinion that forbade automatic segregation of Mexican - descended pupils . He continued to justify separate classes for “ linguisti- cally deficient " students . 137 Daniels's advisory opinion became an issue in the next suit Mexican ...
... express discrimination by administrators of the law , a jury so selected in accordance [ with the statute ] is valid . ” 1 >> 153 The appellate judges in Hernandez's case quoted that 1944 opinion THE VARIETIES OF SCHOOL DESEGREGATION 37.
... opinions he had expressed in some of his earlier work . Sanchez protested that his thinking had changed , as had the opin- ions ... opinion when he was confronted with new data . Rather , he was “ an advocate , a crusader , and a zealot ...
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 |