The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-02-06
(NEA Service Writer)

| (NEA SerVicc Nrltcr)
 Washington-This story is about
 federal courts because there are
 vacancies on federal benches and
 the senate has been quarreling
 about President Hoovers appoint
 nents to fill them.
 | Federal District Judge James H.
 Wilkerson of Chicago has been
 named to the U. S. circuit court of i appeals and Kenneth Macintosh
 of the state of Washington, for
 mer state supreme court justice,
 has been appointed to a similar
 job. Then there is also the mat i ter of a successor to Justice Oliver | Wendell Holmes, who recently re-
 s,gned from the supreme court of | the United States.
 Of course, if you know the diff 1 fcrences between federal district | courts, federal courts of appeal, 1 tfe federal court of claims. and the U. $. supreme court there is not much sense in reading any
 more of this. Most people haven't
 any very clear idea.
 The supreme court has supervi- | sion and control over all other fed eral courts in the United States, and over state courts where ques-
 tions of constitutional rights are i volved. It can and sometime es | does toss out acts of congress on the ground that they are uncon- | stitutional---a power arrOgated for | 1t by Chief Justice John Marshall | in 1895. There is one chief jus ! tee of the court now-Charles
 Evans Hughes, who succeeded William Howard Taft--and eight associate justices. The chief jus l tice's salary Is $20,500 year and
 the others get $20,O00. Resignation of Holmes, regarded as one of the greatest modern liberals. broko the courts so-called liberal ma ! jority' and great interest now
 centers on whether his successor
 will be man likely to join with
 the four conservatives or share the | comparative economic and social liberalism of Justices Hughes. | Brandeis, Stone and Roberts. The higher court gets appeals | from both state courts and inferior I federal courts. It may review the
 final Judgment of state supreme
 courts or bring before it by certi- | orari any case in federal appeals l court. Having ultimate jurisdic- tlon over nearly everything, the l supreme court decisions have a | far-reaching effect on the nations
 economic, political and social prob- | lcms.
 The next highest federal court l is the circuit court of appeals, es- | tablished 40 years ago to take
 some of the burden off the su- preme court. The country is di-
 vided geographically into nine cir cults and each has two, three or
 four "circuit judges," in proportion | to the amount of business. who are paid $12,5O0 year. This court. | ly writ of error or appeal, may re- view decisions in the inferior dis trict courts. It's decision is usually final, although the supreme court | may bring decisions up or certain phases of the case up if askde and | if 1t so elects. Cases involving | constitutionality of federal or state
 laws may be brought directly from | lower courts to the supreme court
 without going through the circuit | court.
 District Judge Wilkerson was
 presidentially appointed to the sev- enth circuit-Illinois, Indiana and | Wisconsin--and Macintosh to the
 ninth-Alaska, Arizona, California,
 Idaho, Montana, Nevada. Oregon, | Washington and Hawaii. Judge