Category: A
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Admiralty
Admiralty and Maritime CasesAdmiralty and maritime jurisdiction comprises two types of cases: (1) those involving acts committed on the high seas or other navigable waters, and (2) those involving contracts and transactions connected with shipping employed on the seas or navigable waters. In the fir…
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Award of Execution
Award of ExecutionThe adherence of the Court to this proposition, however, has not extended to a rigid rule formulated by Chief Justice Taney, given its fullest expression in a posthumously published opinion.1 In Gordon v. United States,<a name=t2 hr…
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Act of 1789
The Act of 1789The summary power of the courts of the United States to punish contempts of their authority had its origin in the law and practice of England where disobedience of court orders was regarded as contempt of the King himself and attachment was a prerogative process derived from presumed …
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Administrative Power
Contempt Power in Aid of Administrative PowerProceedings to enforce the orders of administrative agencies and subpoenas issued by them to appear and produce testimony have become increasingly common since the leading case of ICC v. Brimson,1 which he…
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Appointment of Referees
Appointment of Referees, Masters, and Special AidsThe administration of insolvent enterprises, investigations into the reasonableness of public utility rates, and the performance of other judicial functions often require the special services of masters in chancery, referees, auditors, and other spec…
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Adverse Litigants
Adverse LitigantsThe presence of adverse litigants with real interests to contend for is a standard which has been stressed in numerous cases,1 and the requirement implicates a number of complementary factors making up a justiciable suit. The require…
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Advisory Opinions
Advisory OpinionsIn 1793, the Court unanimously refused to grant the request of President Washington and Secretary of State Jefferson to construe the treaties and laws of the United States pertaining to questions of international law arising out of the wars of the French Revolution.<a name=t1 href=#…
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Abolition of Courts
Abolition of CourtsThat Congress "may from time to time ordain and establish" inferior courts would seem to imply that the system may be reoriented from time to time and that Congress is not restricted to the status quo but may expand and contract the units of the system. But if the judges…
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Agency Adjudication
Agency AdjudicationIn two decisions subsequent to Marathon involving legislative courts, Thomas v. Union Carbide Agric. Products Co.1 and CFTC v. Schor,2 the Court clearly suggested that the majority …
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Arbitration Agreements
Arbitration AgreementsIn 1904 and 1905, Secretary of State John Hay negotiated a series of treaties providing for the general arbitration of international disputes. Article II of the treaty with Great Britain, for example, provided as follows: "In each individual case the High Contracting Parti…
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Access to Executive Branch Information
Congressional Access to Executive Branch InformationPresidents and Congresses have engaged in protracted disputes over provision of information from the former to the latter, but the basic thing to know is that most congressional requests for information are complied with. The disputes, however, hav…
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Access to Government Information
Private Access to Government InformationPrivate parties may seek to obtain information from the government either to assist in defense to criminal charges brought by the government or in civil cases to use in either a plaintiff 's or defendant's capacity in suits with the government or betwe…
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Access to Presidential Documents
Prosecutorial and Grand Jury Access to Presidential DocumentsRarely will there be situations when federal prosecutors or grand juries seek information under the control of the President, since he has ultimate direction of federal prosecuting agencies, but the Watergate Special Prosecutor, being in a…
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Ad Interim Designations
Ad Interim Designations (Presidential Duties and Powers)To be distinguished from the power to make recess appointments is the power of the President to make temporary or ad interim designations of officials to perform the duties of other absent officials. Usually such a situation is provided for in …
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Administrative Decentralization
Administrative Decentralization Versus Jacksonian CentralismAn opinion rendered by Attorney General Wirt in 1823 asserted the proposition that the President's duty under the Take Care Clause required of him scarcely more than that he should bring a criminally negligent official to book for his d…