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Timestamp: 2019-12-12 11:34:59
Document Index: 635593587

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 455', '§ 5305', '§ 135', '§ 461', '§ 455', '§ 455', '§ 1', '§ 455', '§ 2109', '§ 455', '§ 455']

UNITED STATES V. WILL, 449 U. S. 200 (1980) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
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2. Title 28 U.S.C. § 455 -- which requires a federal judge to disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned or where he has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy or is a party to the proceeding -- by reason of the Rule of chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
(d) Even though the statute applying to Year 4 referred only to "executive employees, which includes Members of Congress," and did not expressly mention judges, it appears that Congress intended to include Article III judges. Accordingly, where such statute, similarly to the statute applying to Year 1, purported to revoke an increase in chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
BURGER, C.J.,delivered the opinion of the Court, in which all other Members joined, except BLACKMUN, J., who took no part in the decision of the cases.
Congress has enacted an interlocking network of statutes to fix the compensation of high-level officials in the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches, including federal judges. It provides for quadrennial review of overall salary levels and annual cost-of-living adjustments determined in the same fashion as those for federal employees generally. In four consecutive fiscal years, Congress, with respect to these high-level chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In 1975, Congress adopted the Executive Salary Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, Pub.L. 94-82, 89 Stat. 419. The Adjustment Act subjects the salaries covered by the Salary Act to the same annual adjustment made in the General Schedule under the Federal Pay Comparability Act of 1970, 5 U.S.C. §§ 5305-5306. The Comparability Act requires that, each year, the President designate an agent to compare federal salaries to data on private-sector salaries compiled by chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
28 U.S.C. § 135. Similarly phrased statutes apply to all other Article III judges. [Footnote 2] Title 28 U.S.C. § 461, in turn, provides that the annual chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
None of the appellees have exercised the statutory option to accept the 5.5% increase pursuant to the final clause of this statute; in terms, that statute provides such acceptance of the 5.5% operates as a waiver of all claims to rates higher than chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
No. 79-1689 comes to us from a similar complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Although it is clear that the District Judge and all Justices of this Court have an interest in the outcome of these cases, there is no doubt whatever as to this Court's jurisdiction chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Jurisdiction being clear, our next inquiry is whether 28 U.S.C. § 455 or traditional judicial canons [Footnote 12] operate to disqualify chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In federal courts generally, when an individual judge is disqualified from a particular case by reason of § 455, the disqualified judge simply steps aside and allows the normal administrative processes of the court to assign the case to another judge not disqualified. In the cases now before us, however, all Article III judges have an interest in the outcome; assignment of a substitute District Judge was not possible. And in this Court, when one or more Justices are recused but a statutory quorum of six Justices eligible to act remains available, see 28 U.S.C. § 1, the Court may continue to hear the case. Even if all Justices are disqualified in a particular case under § 455, 28 U.S.C. § 2109 authorizes the Chief Justice to remit a direct appeal to the Court of Appeals for final decision by judges not so disqualified. [Footnote 13] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Rule of Necessity had its genesis at least five and a half centuries ago. Its earliest recorded invocation was in 1430, when it was held that the Chancellor of Oxford could act as judge of a case in which he was a party when there was no provision for appointment of another judge. Y. B. Hil. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Philadelphia v. Fox, 64 Pa. 169, 185 (1870). Other state [Footnote 16] and federal [Footnote 17] courts also have recognized the Rule. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Id. at 253 U. S. 247-248. [Footnote 18] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
S.Rep. No. 93-419, supra at 7 (emphasis added); H.R.Rep. No. 93-1453, supra at 7 (emphasis added). chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We therefore hold that § 455 was not intended by Congress to alter the time-honored Rule of Necessity. And we would not casually infer that the Legislative and Executive Branches sought by the enactment of § 455 to foreclose federal courts from exercising "the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." @ 5 U. S. 177 (1803).
The Compensation Clause has its roots in the longstanding Anglo-American tradition of an independent Judiciary. A chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
12 & 13 Will. III, ch. 2, § III, cl. 7 (1701). This English statute is the earliest legislative acknowledgment that control over the tenure and compensation of judges is incompatible with a truly independent judiciary, free of improper influence from other forces within government. Later, Parliament passed, and the King assented to, a statute implementing the Act of Settlement providing that a judge's salary would not be decreased "so long as the Patents and Commissions of them, or any of them respectively, shall chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Madison's notes of the Constitutional Convention reveal that the draftsmen first reached a tentative arrangement whereby the Congress could neither increase nor decrease the compensation of judges. Later, Gouverneur Morris succeeded in striking the prohibition on increases; with others, he believed the Congress should be at liberty to raise salaries to meet such contingencies as inflation, a phenomenon known in that day as it is in ours. Madison opposed the change on the ground judges might tend to defer unduly to the Congress when that body was considering pay increases. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
This Court has recognized that the Compensation Clause chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
As a general rule, "repeals by implication are not favored." Posadas v. National City Bank, 296 U. S. 497, 296 U. S. 503 (1936). See also TVA v. Hill, 437 U. S. 153, 437 U. S. 189 (1978), and Morton v. Mancari, 417 U. S. 535, 417 U. S. 549 (1974). This rule applies chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In the cases now before us, we conclude that, in each of the four years in question, Congress intended to repeal or postpone previously authorized increases. In the statute for Year 2, Congress expressly stated that the Adjustment Act increase due the following October "shall not take effect." Pub.L. 95-66, 91 Stat. 270. Thus, the plain words of the statute reveal an intention to repeal the Adjustment Act insofar as it would increase salaries in October, 1977. This reading finds support in the House Report on the bill, which repeatedly uses language such as "eliminate the expected October 1977 comparability adjustment." See H.R.Rep. No. 95-458, pp. 1, 3 (1977). The floor remarks of Senators and Representatives confirm that this construction was generally understood. [Footnote 24] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The statutes in Years 1, 3, and 4, although phrased in terms of limiting funds, see supra at 449 U. S. 205-206, 449 U. S. 207, 449 U. S. 208, nevertheless were intended by Congress to block the increases the Adjustment Act otherwise would generate. Representative Shipley introduced the rider in relation to Year 1 to "preven[t] the automatic cost-of-living pay increase. . . ." 122 Cong.Rec. 28872 (1976). [Footnote 25] Floor remarks in both Houses reflected this view. [Footnote 26] In Year 3, the House Report characterized the statute as a "change [in] the application of existing law," H.R.Rep. No. 95-1254, p. 31 (1978), and described its effect as creating a one-year "pay freeze," id. at 35. The Senate Report chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The statute applying to Year 1 was signed by the President during the business day of October 1, 1976. By that time, the 4.8% increase under the Adjustment Act already had chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
taken effect, since it was operative with the start of the month -- and the new fiscal year -- at the beginning of the day. The statute became law only upon the President's signing it on October l; it therefore purported to repeal a salary increase already in force. Thus it "diminished" the compensation of federal judges. [Footnote 29] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Unlike the statute for Year 1, the statute for Year 2 was signed by the President before October 1, when the 7.1% raise under the Comparability Act was due to take effect. Year 2 thus confronts us squarely with the question of whether Congress may, before the effective date of a salary increase, rescind such an increase scheduled to take effect at a later date. The District Court held that, by including an annual cost-of-living adjustment in the statutory definitions of the salaries of Article III judges, see supra at 449 U. S. 204, and n. 2, Congress made the annual adjustment, from that moment on, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Congress enacted the Adjustment Act based on this delegated power to fix and, periodically, increase judicial compensation. It did not thereby alter the compensation of judges; it modified only the formula for determining that compensation. Later, Congress decided to abandon the formula chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
as to the particular years in question. For Year 2, as opposed to Year 1, the statute was passed before the Adjustment Act increases had taken effect -- before they had become a part of the compensation due Article III judges. Thus, the departure from the Adjustment Act policy in no sense diminished the compensation Article III judges were receiving; it refused only to apply a previously enacted formula. [Footnote 32] A paramount -- indeed, an indispensable -- ingredient of the concept of powers delegated to coequal branches is that each branch must recognize and respect the limits on its own authority and the boundaries of the authority delegated to the other branches. To say that the Congress could not alter a method of calculating salaries before it was executed would mean the Judicial Branch could command Congress to carry out an announced future intent as to a decision the Constitution vests exclusively in the Congress. [Footnote 33] We therefore conclude chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We are satisfied that Congress' use of the phrase "executive employees," in context, was intended to include Article III judges. The full title of the Adjustment Act is the Executive Salary Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, but it is clear that it was intended to apply to officials in the Legislative and the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The District Court has not yet calculated the precise dollar amounts involved in Years 1 and 4, the years in which we hold the statutes violated the Compensation Clause. Further proceedings are required to resolve these questions. Accordingly, the judgment of the District Court in No. 79-983 chanroblesvirtualawlibrary