Court Opinion

ID: 9431045
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:31:13.493981+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:26.770231
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice Rehnquist,
with whom Justice O’Con-nor and Justice Scalia join, dissenting.
We have previously held that this Court may, in the exercise of its “supervisory authority,” modify or reverse judgments of lower federal courts in accordance with principles derived neither from the United States Constitution nor from any Act of Congress. United States v. Hasting, 461 U. S. 499, 505 (1983); Cupp v. Naughten, 414 U. S. 141, 146 (1973). Such a power, we have reasoned, inheres in any appellate court called upon “to review proceedings of trial courts and to reverse judgments of such courts which the appellate court concludes were wrong.” Ibid. In the present case the Court expands the notion of supervisory authority to allow it to review and revise local Rules of a District Court that regulate admission to the bar of that court. But it does not follow from the fact that we may reverse or modify a judgment of *652another federal court which we believe to be wrong that we may set aside a rule promulgated by that court governing admission to its own bar on a similar basis.
Congress has provided in 28 U. S. C. § 2071 that the district courts may prescribe rules for the conduct of their business.1 It is clear from 28 U. S. C. § 1654 that the authority provided in § 2071 includes the authority of a district court to regulate the membership of its bar.2 See United States v. Hvass, 355 U. S. 570, 575 (1958). Neither these sections nor Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 83,3 which also governs the rulemaking power of district courts, gives any intimation that this Court possesses “supervisory power” over rules adopted in accordance with these provisions. Indeed, the history of these provisions demonstrates the broad discretion possessed by district courts in promulgating their own rules. At one *653time former Equity Rule 79 required that district court rules be made “[w]ith the concurrence of a majority of the circuit judges for the circuit,” but that restriction was abolished by former 28 U. S. C. § 731 (1940 ed.), which provided the basis for Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 83. And no enabling Act has ever required the approval of this Court, or a majority of the Justices thereof, for the promulgation of district court rules.
The Court finds that the Rules Enabling Act, 28 U. S. C. § 2072, “confirms” its power to decide whether local rules are rational and necessary. Ante, at 646, n. 4. That Act, however, has heretofore been regarded as statutory authorization for this Court’s promulgation of rules of procedure itself, and not as a grant of power to review the wisdom of rules adopted by a district court in default of any action by this Court. See, e. g., Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Woods, 480 U. S. 1, 5, n. 3 (1987); Hanna v. Plumer, 380 U. S. 460, 463-466, 471-474 (1965).
To the extent that the Rules Enabling Act can be viewed as “confirming” this Court’s power to review the wisdom of district court rules, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 83 suggests that this Court has apparently relinquished that power to the Judicial Councils of the Circuits. Rule 83, as recently amended in 1985, provides detailed procedures governing the adoption and amendment of district court rules. Under these procedures, a district court may make and amend rules by action of a majority of the judges of the court after notice and an opportunity for comment by the public are provided. The district court rules shall “remain in effect unless amended by the district court or abrogated by the judicial council of the circuit in which the district is located.” Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 83 (emphasis added). If there were a role for this Court to entertain ad hoc challenges to district court rules on the basis of necessity or rationality alone, one would *654think that it would have been provided for in the orderly procedures of Rule 83.4
Unquestionably the rule of a district court relating to membership in its bar may not violate the United States Constitution and must conform to any Act of Congress conferring authority in that respect. One denied admission to the bar by a rule which violates either the Constitution or an applicable statute may of course obtain review of that decision in this Court, and a reversal of the decision if his claims are well founded. But today’s decision rests upon no such grounds.5
Prior cases addressing challenges to the validity of local rules have confined their analyses to four inquiries: whether the rule conflicts with an Act of Congress; whether the rule conflicts with the rules of procedure promulgated by this Court; whether the rule is constitutionally infirm; and whether the subject matter governed by the rule is not within the power of a lower federal court to regulate. See, e. g., Colgrove v. Battin, 413 U. S. 149, 159-160, 162-164 (1973); Miner v. Atlass, 363 U. S. 641, 651-652 (1960); Story v. Liv*655ingston, 13 Pet. 359, 368 (1839). The Court today does not suggest that the local Rules at issue here are invalid for any of these reasons, and instead determines merely that, in its view, the Rules are “unnecessary and irrational.” Ante, at 646, 650, n. 10.
This newfound and quite unwarranted authority contrasts starkly with the observations of Chief Justice Marshall, writing for the Court in Ex parte Burr, 9 Wheat. 529 (1824):
“Some doubts are felt in this Court respecting the extent of its authority as to the conduct of the Circuit and District Courts towards their officers; but without deciding on this question, the Court is not inclined to interpose, unless it were in a case where the conduct of the Circuit or District Court was irregular, or was flagrantly improper.” Id., at 530.
The force behind the Court’s reluctance in Ex parte Burr to interfere with a lower court’s bar membership decision was its recognition that a federal court possesses nearly exclusive authority over such matters. Id., at 531. This recognition is reflected throughout this Court’s cases. See, e. g., Ex parte Secombe, 19 How. 9, 12-13 (1857); Ex parte Garland, 4 Wall. 333, 379 (1867); see also In re Snyder, 472 U. S. 634, 643 (1985).
Petitioner contends that the local rules in question here violate the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, but the Court, having waved its supervisory wand, finds it unnecessary to address this question. For the reasons stated by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, I conclude that the local rules do not classify so arbitrarily or irrationally as to run afoul of the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause. I would therefore affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

 Section 2071 provides:
“The Supreme Court and all courts established by Act of Congress may from time to time prescribe rules for the conduct of their business. Such rules shall be consistent with Acts of Congress and rules of practice and procedure prescribed by the Supreme Court.”

 Section 1654 provides:
“In all courts of the United States the parties may plead and conduct their own cases personally or by counsel as, by the rules of such courts, respectively, are permitted to manage and conduct causes therein.”

 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 83 provides:
“Each district court by action of a majority of the judges thereof may from time to time, after giving appropriate public notice and an opportunity to comment, make and amend rules governing its practice not inconsistent with these rules. A local rule so adopted shall take effect upon the date specified by the district court and shall remain in effect unless amended by the district court or abrogated by the judicial council of the circuit in which the district is located. Copies of rules and amendments so made by any district court shall upon their promulgation be furnished to the judicial council and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and be made available to the public. In all cases not provided for by rule, the district judges and magistrates may regulate their practice in any manner not inconsistent with these rules or those of the district in which they act.”

 As noted by the Court, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected petitioner’s request to exercise its authority under Rule 83 to invalidate local Rules 21.2 and 21.3.1, noting that the Fifth Circuit Judicial Conference is presently reviewing the local rules of the District Courts of the Circuit. In light of this pending review, the Court’s action today is particularly disruptive of the procedures established by Rule 83.

 The Court declares its prerogative to review district court rules governing bar admission standards to determine whether they are consistent with “the principles of right and justice.” Ante, at 645. Yet the “law and justice” standard cited by the Court derives from cases in which this Court has reviewed attorney disbarment decisions by lower federal courts. See In re Ruffalo, 390 U. S. 544, 554 (1968) (White, J., concurring in result); Theard v. United States, 354 U. S. 278, 282 (1957); Selling v. Radford, 243 U. S. 46, 51 (1917). The Court is unable to cite an example in which this standard has been used to evaluate the validity of a local rule governing bar admission requirements. Although Theard v. United States, supra, and In re Ruffalo, supra, involved District Court and Court of Appeals rules governing disbarment proceedings, the validity of those rules was not questioned by the Court in those cases.