The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-02-04
ON The CENTENNIAL.
The Supreme Court Celebration
at New York To-day.
SOME TALKS WITH THE JUSTICES.
MIR. Miller Says They are All Overworked-
Justice Bradley Says His is a Slaves
Life Other Views.

its hundredth anniversary at New York
to morrow. The judges are leaving Wash
ington to-day and they will meet the lead
ing lawyers of the country at their centen-
NAL celebration. One of the subjects dis |
cussed will undoubtedly be as to the future
of the supreme court business. Already |
the court is between three and four years
behind hand in the settlement of its cases.
There are about sixteen hundred cases on
the docket, and it takes three full years
from the time a case is entered before it
can be called up before the court. With a
view to giving your readers the ablest
opinions upon the subject your correspond
ent to-day interviewed the justices in re-
gard to it. The senior man upon the
bench is
JUSTICE SAMUEL F. MILLER.
He has been supreme court judge for
the past twenty eight years. He is with
out doubt one of the ablest jurists in the
United States, and he is, as will be seen
from this interview, the pioneer among
the justices in the attempted reform of the
business of the supreme court. | found
him in his study at his residence on Massa-
,chusetts avenue. He was sitting at desk
covered with the printed record of cases.
mass of testimony as | asked him the ques-
ton. He said:
1.-THE business of the supreme court be-
gan to overwhelm its members as far back
as 1858 and TO Then the war began, and
during this period, as no cases came from
the SOUTH and as there was not great
deal of litigation throughout the country
during the war, the business of the court
fell off so that the judges were able to dis
pose of it. At the close of the war, how
ever, came an enormous increase of bust
ness. A large number of cases which had
accumulated during the struggle were
thrust upon US. New business came in
from the southern states, and the business
Of the federal courts increased to such an
extent ali over the country that in one year
the court had docketed more cases than it
could dispose of. l came to the supreme
court bench in 1862. In 1865 and '66 the
business of the court had grown to such an
extent that it was impossible for the judges
to keep up with it, and then made to the
judiciary committee of the House, of
which Mr.. Wilson, the present Sen
ator of Iowa was chairman, and to
the judiciary committee of the Senate,
at the head of which was Senator Harris,
of New York, a statement Of the condition
of the business of the court and of the
necessity for some immediate relief. After
! had sent in a memorial to these commit
tees a clerk of the Senate brought bill to
me which had been introduced by Stephen
A Douglas in 1854 This bill contained
many of the rovisions as that which has
been several times before Congress and
which has passed at three separate times
one or the other of the two houses. The
substance of the bill was the creation of
court of appeals for each of the nine cir
cults into which the judicial system of the
United States is divided. Very shortly
after this Mr.. Harris, of the United States
Senate from New York, introduced a bill
which, after two session, he succeeded in
passing through that bodv His bill
provided for the creation of this
appellate court. The House, however. did
not act upon it during that Congress. and
of course it failed. Several years after
this, at the request of the supreme court
judges, nearly all of whom agreed to it. /
handed to General B. f. Butler, who was
then chairman of the committee of revision
of the laws, similar bill which he intro
duced in the House and had referred to his
committee. During that session of Con
gress that bill was reported and passed the
House of Representatives after one day of
Sigorus debate The Senate, however.
Hailed to act upon it during that Congress
and the bill was lost. A number of years
after this Senator David Davis, who had
been for many years on the supreme court
bench, introduced bill of the same general
features into the Senate. and after an
effort of two or three years he succeeded in
securing its passage by decided majority
but as in former Congresses, the House
of Representatives failed to act upon the
bill. In every one of these instances in
which vote has been obtained upon such
bill it has been passed by such decided
majority of one of the houses as to show
that all that is needed to secure its becom-
ing law is action during some Congress
10y both houses. This bill has been consid-
cred several times by committees of the
bar ass ociations, and in every instance it
has met with the approval of those associa-
tions. A year ago the bar association ap-
pointed a committee to enforce upon Con
gress the necessity of passing this bill 1t
has also the approval of the members of
the supreme court and while there are
some members of that court perhaps, who
would prefer some other measuee, it can be
safely said that the whole body would
rather have this bill passed than to allow
things to remain as they are.
THE HARDEST WORKED COURT IN THE WORLD
"Our court ITSELF" Justice Miller went
on, has done everything that lay within
its power to remedy this evil 1t has by
a rule required almost every motion and in
cidental matter to which the court is called
upon to act to be submitted to IL in printed
form. The arguments and statements OF
facts are printed to avoid the consumption
of the time used IL presenting them orally.
1t has by rule reduced the period of time
allowed for an argument in a case from
eight hours to four hours and it has in var
lOds other ways facilitated the progress of
the business of the court and required the
condensation of arguments and the econ
omy of time in the submission of cases to
the court. 1t sits for four hours every day
to near arguments except Saturday and
that day II sits all day in private confer
ence to decide the cases which have been
submitted to 1t. 1t meets promptly at the
hours of opening the court and it never
adiourns until within five or ten min
utes of the time of adjournment.
The Judges of the court being
furnished with printed records Of the cases
and with printed arguments of the counsel
have these lying on their tables in their
offices at home and devote the evenings
and the mornings to the consideration of
these cases. 1t is probable that in the
business of the court, taking the hearing
of the oral arguments for hours a day, the
examination of cases at their rooms, the
time at conference on Saturday, and that
taken up in writing the decisions, that the
members of the supreme court spend more
hours of the day at their work than any
other body of men engaged in the public
service of the United States. This will be
further understood when it is seen that the
court session is about eight months long
with few recesses as at Christmas OF
other HOLIDAYS.
Another remarkable fact in regard tt
this COURT said Justice Miller, sis that i
decides all the cases submitted to 1t as fas
as they can be argued and presented bl
counsel. and at the end of each term i
leaves fewer cases undecided of those tina