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- Title
DISTRICT JUDGES AS INVESTMENTS.
- Authors
EVERLY III, GEORGE; SHENKMAN, MICHAEL L.
- Abstract
When considering legislation to create judgeships for the ninety-four U.S. District Courts, Congress ought to evaluate each judgeship as a potential investment in judicial infrastructure, and examine both its costs and benefits. Instead, the dominant political framing has been to look at judgeships as cost drivers-- an error compounded by a mistake in the cost-estimate methodology leading to consistent overstatement of the associated costs. Expenses are not the only reason for caution in creating new district judgeships, however, and policymakers have struggled to address critical needs in certain districts without substantially changing the size and shape of the federal trial bench. This Article offers a resolution of this tension through a proposal to create a small number of judgeships that, rather than being assigned to a particular district by statute, would be temporarily assigned to districts by the Judicial Conference based on where they would best contribute to the efficiency of the courts. This approach maximizes political plausibility by giving the Judiciary control over allocation of marginal resources. And it does so without modifying the nomination and confirmation ecosystem by which individuals are selected and appointed to office as judges for particular districts by the President in close consultation with home-state Senators.
- Subjects
DISTRICT judges; COST estimates; CAPITAL investment laws; LEGAL judgments; JUDICIAL Conference of the United States
- Publication
Harvard Journal on Legislation, 2016, Vol 53, Issue 1, p59
- ISSN
0017-808X
- Publication type
Article