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32 Third Branch 1 (2000)

handle is hein.journals/thirdbran32 and id is 1 raw text is: TrHF THIRD BRANCH Newsletter of the Federal Courts k 4 Vol. 32 Ntmber I January 2000 Special Issue The 1009 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary The 1999 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary-my 14th as Chief Justice-provides an oppor- tunity to review the state of the Judiciary not only for the past year, but also to reflect briefly on its status this past century, which, I hasten to point out, has another year to run. Just ask the makers of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Our society experienced enormous technological and industrial advances in the 20th century. We entered the century traveling in horse and buggy, on steamboat, or by rail, and we leave it thinking of man's landing on the moon as old news, to use but one example. Changes in the federal Judiciary in the 201h century may appear less extreme by comparison, but are nonetheless remark- able. One hundred years ago, there were 108 authorized federal judgeships in the federal Judiciary, consisting 0 of 71 district judgeships, 28. appellate judgeships, and 9 Supreme Court Justices. Today, there are 852- including 655 district judgeships, 179 appellate judgeships and 9 Supreme Court Justices. In 1900, 13,605 cases were filed in federal district courts, and 1,093 in courts of appeals. This past year, over 320,194 cases were filed in federal district courts, over 54,600 in courts of appeals, and over 1,300,000 filings were made in bankruptcy courts alone. These changes in the federal Judiciary reflect not merely a growth * * 66-1W, .6ihtadn chne and6 .6aton wihi th federal diir ove the lat10yas ras th grats c- S.b- - it haSaet u oit U -h wyil.chw gvr in th2 population of the United States, but also have been in re- sponse to the increasing jurisdiction of federal courts. Some increase in federal jurisdiction has been a natural result of the industrial- ization and technological develop- ment and the corresponding re- gulation of it in America in the 20h century; some in recent years, however, has resulted from un- necessary federalization of traditional state law matters. Of course, technological advances have had other profound impacts on the Judiciary. A century that began with some federal judges still riding the circuits con- cludes with judges commu- nicating by video conferencing, using a Federal Judicial Television Network, and in some instances reviewing briefs filed electronically. Notwithstanding changes and adaptations within the federal Judiciary over the last 100 years, perhaps the greatest contribution it has made to our society and the way in which we govern ourselves has been its stability and rela- tive predictability. These see Report on page 2

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