Opinion ID: 108152
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: statutory jurisdiction

Text: This Court does not, of course, necessarily possess all of the appellate jurisdiction permitted to it by Article III. That article provides that our appellate jurisdiction is to be exercised with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make, and this language has been held to give Congress the power, within limits, to prescribe the instances in which it may be exercised. E. g., Ex parte McCardle, 7 Wall. 506, 512-513 (1869). I turn, therefore, to the Judicial Code to determine our statutory authority to consider Judge Chandler's petition. Congress in the Code has not spoken, one way or the other, regarding review of the orders of Judicial Councils. Petitioner asserts that the Court has power to issue mandamus or prohibition to the Councils under the All Writs Act, 28 U. S. C. § 1651 (a), which provides that [t]he Supreme Court and all courts established by Act of Congress may issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law. This statute has been construed to empower this Court to issue an extraordinary writ to a lower federal court in a case falling within our statutory appellate jurisdiction, where the issuance of the writ will further the exercise of that jurisdiction. See, e. g., De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd. v. United States, 325 U. S. 212, 217 (1945); United States Alkali Export Assn. v. United States, 325 U. S. 196, 201-204 (1945). It is now settled that the case need not be already pending in this Court before an extraordinary writ may be issued under § 1651 (a); rather, the Court may issue the writ when the lower court's action might defeat or frustrate this Court's eventual jurisdiction, even where that jurisdiction could be invoked on the merits only after proceedings in an intermediate court. See, e. g., De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd. v. United States, 325 U. S., at 217; Ex parte Peru, 318 U. S. 578 (1943); Ex parte United States, 287 U. S. 241, 248-249 (1932); McClellan v. Carland, 217 U. S. 268 (1910); cf. FTC v. Dean Foods Co., 384 U. S. 597 (1966); Roche v. Evaporated Milk Assn., 319 U. S. 21 (1943). But cf. In re Glaser, 198 U. S. 171, 173 (1905); In re Massachusetts, 197 U. S. 482, 488 (1905). Each of the prior cases in which this Court has invoked § 1651 (a) to issue a writ in aid of [its jurisdiction] has involved a particular lawsuit over which the Court would have statutory review jurisdiction at a later stage. By contrast, petitioner's reliance on this statute is bottomed on the fact that the action of the Judicial Council touches, through Judge Chandler's fate, hundreds of cases over which this Court has appellate or review jurisdiction. Petition for Writ of Prohibition and/or Mandamus 13. He argues that the Council's orders, allocating to other judges in his district cases that would otherwise be decided by him, constitute a usurpation of power that cannot adequately be remedied on final review of those cases by certiorari or appeal in this Court. The United States as amicus curiae agrees that this claim properly invokes the Court's power to consider whether mandamus or prohibition should be granted. [12] Although this expansive use of § 1651 (a) has no direct precedent in this Court, it seems to me wholly in line with the history of that statute and consistent with the manner in which it has been interpreted both here and in the lower courts. Chief Justice Stone, writing for the Court in Ex parte Peru, 318 U. S., at 583, characterized the historic use of writs of prohibition and mandamus directed by an appellate to an inferior court as that of confining the inferior court to a lawful exercise of its prescribed jurisdiction, or of compelling it to exercise its authority when it is its duty to do so. The bounds of this Court's discretionary power to issue such writs were further stated in Parr v. United States, 351 U. S. 513, 520-521 (1956): The power to issue them is discretionary and it is sparingly exercised. . . . This is not a case where a court has exceeded or refused to exercise its jurisdiction, see Roche v. Evaporated Milk Assn., 319 U. S. 21, 26, nor one where appellate review will be defeated if a writ does not issue, cf. Maryland v. Soper, 270 U. S. 9, 29-30. Here the most that could be claimed is that the district courts have erred in ruling on matters within their jurisdiction. The extraordinary writs do not reach to such cases; they may not be used to thwart the congressional policy against piecemeal appeals. Roche v. Evaporated Milk Assn., supra, at p. 30. [13] In Parr, the petitioner's claim was simply that a district court had erred in dismissing an indictment at the Government's request after the Government had obtained a new indictment for the same offenses in another district. In contrast, the present case involves a claim that the Council's orders were entered in a matter entirely beyond its jurisdiction. Judge Chandler claims that the order of December 13, 1965, depriving him of both pending and future cases, was tantamount to his removal from office, and that such an act far exceeded the limited jurisdiction over administrative matters conferred on the Council by § 332. He further asserts, as noted in Part I, supra, that the order of February 4, 1966, exceeded the Council's jurisdiction under either § 332 or § 137. Such grave charges clearly go beyond a mere claim that the Council has erred in ruling on matters within [its] jurisdiction. Cf. Will v. United States, 389 U. S. 90, 95-96, 98 and n. 6 (1967); Schlagenhauf v. Holder, 379 U. S. 104 (1964). Further, there seems to be no means by which Judge Chandler's challenge to the orders could be aired adequately on review of the cases to which they pertain. While the losing party in a case assigned to another district judge might conceivably argue on appeal that he is entitled to reversal because his case should have been heard by Judge Chandler, such an argument would encounter formidable obstacles. A reviewing court would have no way of determining whether a particular case filed in the District Court after the February 4 Order would, but for that order, have been assigned to Judge Chandler; nor is it clear that the error, if detectable, would in itself entitle the losing party to invalidate proceedings had before another judge. More basically, Judge Chandler is asserting an injury to himself, apart from any injuries to the parties in those cases; the parties cannot be relied upon to seek vindication of that injury. Cf. Ex parte Fahey, 332 U. S. 258, 260 (1947); Ex parte Harding, 219 U. S. 363, 372-380 (1911). It is difficult to see how the very multiplicity of the cases affected by the Council's orders could derogate from this Court's authority under § 1651 (a) to issue an extraordinary writ in aid of its appellate jurisdiction over them. A somewhat analogous multiplicity was found to militate in favor of the issuance of mandamus in McCullough v. Cosgrave, 309 U. S. 634 (1940), and in Los Angeles Brush Corp. v. James, 272 U. S. 701 (1927). As later explained by MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN, dissenting in La Buy v. Howes Leather Co., 352 U. S. 249, 266 (1957),  Los Angeles Brush Corp. was a case where a reference [to a master] was made, not because a district judge decided that the particular circumstances of the particular case required a reference, but pursuant to an agreement among all the judges of that District Court always to appoint masters to hear patent cases regardless of the circumstances of particular cases. Mandamus was therefore issued in Los Angeles Brush Corp., and in McCullough, which involved a similar situation in the same District Court, in order to remedy a pervasive disregard of the Rules of Civil Procedure affecting numerous cases. [14] Similarly, in La Buy the Court upheld the authority of the Court of Appeals under § 1651 (a) to issue writs of mandamus compelling a district judge to rescind his referral of two antitrust cases to a master for trial. The Court found that the referral was a clear abuse of discretion, and further noted that the Court of Appeals has for years admonished the trial judges of the Seventh Circuit that the practice of making references `does not commend itself'. . . [and that it was] `all too common in the Northern District of Illinois.'  352 U. S., at 257, 258. This factor was primary among the exceptional circumstances found to warrant the Court of Appeals' issuance of the writs. In the reported case most nearly analogous to this one, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a writ of mandamus at the behest of the United States to compel a district judge to return to the judicial office from which he had been unlawfully removed. United States v. Malmin, 272 F. 785 (C. A. 3d Cir. 1921). Judge Malmin, of the District Court of the Virgin Islands, had returned to the United States after the territorial governor had purported to remove him and appoint another to his seat. Relying on § 262 of the Judicial Code of 1911, a predecessor of the All Writs Act, the court ruled that it had authority to issue the writ in aid of its jurisdiction, id., at 791; it observed that the absence of a lawfully appointed judge of the District Court affected the rights of litigants in cases reviewable in the Court of Appeals, and that the right of the public to a properly constituted trial court from which appeals can validly lie could not be asserted or brought about in proceedings on appeal or by writ of error. In those circumstances, the court deemed it essential to the appellate jurisdiction of this court that orderly proceedings in the District Court of the Virgin Islands be restored. Id., at 792. A dissenter in Malmin disagreed with the majority's conclusion that the defect could not be rectified on appeal, and urged that mandamus should not issue because it could not bind the succeeding appointee, who was not a party. In the case before us, as noted above, the ordinary appeals are not adequate to protect Judge Chandler's interest; and there is no problem of missing parties, since it is the judge himself who is complaining of illegal interference with the exercise of his office, and that complaint can be remedied fully by the issuance of a writ against respondent Judicial Council. For these reasons I would conclude that the actions challenged by Judge Chandler sufficiently affect matters within this Court's appellate jurisdiction to bring his application for an extraordinary writ within our authority under § 1651 (a), and that his charges, if sustained, would present an appropriate occasion for the issuance of such a writ. [15]