The rise of judicial management in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, 1955-2000
By: Steven Harmon Wilson.
Series: Studies in the legal history of the South
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Athens, Ga
Language: eng
Number of pages: 559
Subjects: United States. District Court (Texas : Southern District) -- History.; Justice, Administration of -- Texas -- History.; Complex litigation -- Texas -- History.; Court administration -- Texas -- History.
Description: "The Southern District of Texas offers an especially instructive model by which to study this transformation. Not only does it contain a varied population of Hispanics, African Americans, and whites, but its jurisdiction also includes an international border and some of the busiest seaports in the United States. Wilson identifies several areas of judicial management in which the shift has most clearly manifested itself. Using docket and case management, judges have attempted to rationalize the flow of work through the litigation process.

More controversially, judges have also sought to bring "constitutionally flawed" institutions into compliance through "structural reform" rulings in areas such as housing, education, employment, and voting. Wilson draws on sources ranging from judicial biography and oral-history interviews to case files, published opinions, and administrative memoranda. Blending legal history with social science, this important new study ponders the changing meaning of federal judgeship as it shows how judicial management has both helped and hindered the resolution of legal conflicts and the protection of civil rights."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 521-545) and index.
Table of contents: title: The varieties of public school desegregation; title: Legislation, litigation, and judicial economy; title: The rules and exceptions of border justice; title: Managing "our federalism" in the Southern District; title: Judicial management of triethnic integration; title: Federal criminal justice on trial in the 1970s; title: Adjuncts and the oversight of corporate misconduct; title: Masters, magistrates, and managerial judges.