The Stop Court-Packing Act () was a proposed
bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
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* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
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* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
that was introduced in the
113th United States Congress
The 113th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015, during the fifth and sixth years of Presidency of Barack Obama, Barack Obama's presiden ...
on June 4, 2013, with the full title of the bill stating to "reduce the number of Federal judgeships for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit". The chief sponsor of the legislation was Republican
Tom Cotton
Thomas Bryant Cotton (born May 13, 1977) is an American politician, attorney, and former military officer serving as the junior United States senator for Arkansas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the U.S. House of R ...
(R-AR4), with no other notable co-sponsors. He proposed a bill that would reduce the number of judges on the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from eleven to eight.
Overview
President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
said in a high-profile press conference, held in the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
’s
Rose Garden that he would nominate
Cornelia "Nina" Pillard,
Patricia Millett and
Robert L. Wilkins
Robert Leon Wilkins (born October 2, 1963) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Early life and education
Wilkins was born in 1963 in Muncie, Indiana, to the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. However, Cotton introduced the Stop Court-Packing Act to eliminate three "needless" judgeships from the D.C. Circuit, claiming it would save millions of dollars.
Reactions
In his reaction to the proposed Act, President Obama said it was an "obviously blatant political move" on the part of Senate Republicans to seek to reduce the size of the court while he was President. He noted that two months prior a judicial conference led by Justice Roberts said the current workload of the D.C. Circuit required 11 judges.
Janine Parry, a professor of politics at the
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...
, said it would make some sense to read Cotton’s actions as a signal of his intent to challenge U.S. Sen.
Mark Pryor, D-Ark., in the 2014 mid-term elections, as well as a way to burnish his image among conservative Republicans.
Similar proposals
In early 2013, Senator
Chuck Grassley
Charles Ernest Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is an American politician serving as the president pro tempore emeritus of the United States Senate, and the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States sen ...
(R-Iowa) proposed a similar bill that would reduce the number of judges on the
D.C. Circuit by three and would add one judge each to the New York-based
Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the Atlanta-based
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Judicial Conference, however, has not recommended that any additional judges be added to those two Circuit Courts of Appeals.
See also
*
Acts of the 113th United States Congress
The acts of the 113th United States Congress includes all Acts of Congress and ratified treaties by the 113th United States Congress, which lasted from January 3, 2013 to January 3, 2015.
Acts include public and private laws, which are enacted ...
*
Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937
The Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, frequently called the "court-packing plan",Epstein, at 451. was a legislative initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court in order to ...
, often referred to as the "court-packing plan"
*
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
References
{{reflist, 2
External links
Full text of the Stop Court-Packing Act
Localism (politics)
Proposed legislation of the 113th United States Congress
United States federal judiciary legislation