Court Opinion

ID: 9448827
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:45:30.520205+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:33.694369
License: Public Domain

GOODRICH, Circuit Judge
(concurring in dissent).
It seems to me that the position taken by the Chief Judge is clearly right. It is true that the “inferior courts” spoken of in the Constitution are courts of limited jurisdiction. But because a court has authority to deal with only specified types of cases or controversies does not mean that the judge of such a court is caponized. So far as the things he deals with are concerned, he has the authority, surely, of any judge in any court of record.
No one doubts that the judge has authority to run his court. He may tell counsel to sit down; he may have removed from the room persons who interfere with the proceedings. He sets dates for argument. Court is opened and adjourned at such times as he specifies. He certainly is not less in control of his courtroom than is a teacher in control of his classroom.
Now the judge may also discipline the members of the bar of his court and, in cases calling for it, may suspend them or punish them for contempt. It seems to me clear that with all this authority which the judge undoubtedly has that he can also impose sanctions for the disciplining of lawyers who, in matters not amounting to contempt, do not obey rules. If a judge is going to organize, either alone or with fellow judges, the business of the court, there must be authority to impose reasonable sanctions for the breach of reasonable rules.*

 The court, following Judge GOODRICH’S death on June 25, 1962, ordered this opinion, Concurring in Dissent, filed.