The Evolution of Litigation in the Federal Courts of Appeals, 1895-1975

Abstract

This article examines the business of three United States Courts of Appeals over the course of their history. The courts selected for study were the northeastern Second Circuit, the deep south Fifth Circuit, and the west coast Ninth Circuit. A random sample of 50 cases was drawn for each circuit for every fifth fiscal year beginning with 1895 and ending with 1975. The sample years were aggregated into four time periods: 1895-1910, 1915-1930, 1935-1955, and 1960-1975. The business of the three circuits was found to have changed substantially from the 1895-1910 time period to the modern period. In the earlier years the circuits had small proportions of criminal cases—with the exception of the Second Circuit—a significant portion of real property cases, substantial proportions of business cases, and significant proportions of tort cases. By the 1960-1975 period a sizable proportion of the business of all three circuits was devoted to criminal and other public-law type cases; there were negligible proportions of real property cases, relatively small proportions of business cases, and even smaller proportions of tort cases. Public disputes replaced private disputes as the major source of the courts' business, and over time there has been a convergence among the circuits in the mix of cases coming to them.

The Routinization of Debt Collection: An Essay on Social Change and Conflict in the Courts

“…In the federal courts, bankruptcy filings increased spectacularly from about 10,000 per year in 1946 to 250,000 in 1975. But the proportion (and perhaps the absolute number) of debt-related "contract" and "business organization" cases in federal Courts of Appeals declined (Baum et al, 1981-82), suggesting that the bankruptcy process was relatively successful in "settling" the claims of competing creditors in a consensual or routine way. 14 Yet it seems unlikely that the marked decline in state supreme court debt cases after the mid-1930s can be explained by the sudden transformation of the law of debtors' and creditors' rights, 14 It should be noted, however, that in most bankruptcy proceedings the bankrupt does not have enough assets left for competing unsecured creditors to fight over (Stanley and Girth, 1971).…”

“…Baum et al (1981-82) report an almost equally pronounced decline in the proportion of contract cases (many of which, I assume, could be classified as debt collection cases) and bankruptcy cases on the dockets of federal courts of appeals in the post-World War II era. Contract cases slumped from about 25% of 2nd and 5th Circuit cases in1895-1930 to about 12% in 1960, and from 20% of 9th Circuit cases in 1895-1910 to 9% in 1960 …”

American Adversarialism

“…While there are a number of excellent analyses of the changing nature of cases in the (federal) appeals courts (Baum, Goldman, & Sarat 1981–82; Songer, Sheehan, & Haire 2000) and in state supreme courts (Kagan et al 1977), little systematic analysis of the growth in appellate dockets is available. One study does examine the growth of federal appeals between 1977 and 1993 (Krafka, Cecil, & Lombard 1995), a period during which the number of appeals grew from 10,000 to about 33,000 per year.…”

Supreme Court Voting and Realigning Issues: A Microlevel Analysis of Supreme Court Policy Making and Electoral Realignment

“…Judicial decision making is complex and multifaceted. Research continues to show the importance of nonpartisan elements such as role orientations, legal cues, and legal facts (Baum, 1988;Gibson, 1978;Goldman, 1975;Goldman and Lamb, 1986;Howard, 1981;Segal, 1984;Tate, 1981). Nevertheless, the theory of realignment brings the role of the justices' partisan affiliation to the forefront of concern.…”