NEWS RELEASE

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts

  March 30, 1999 Contact: Karen Redmond

 

 

Chief Justice Tells Congress June 15th Cutoff Imperils Judiciary

The Chief Justice of the United States, William H. Rehnquist, has written to congressional leaders asking for the prompt release of the federal Judiciary's appropriations from a June 15, 1999 cutoff date. On that date, funding for the Judiciary and three cabinet departments comes to an end--a limitation that was written by Congress into the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies Appropriations Act last fall. The Chief Justice urged "in the strongest possible terms" that funding for the Judiciary quickly be made available for the remainder of the fiscal year."

At the time, the cutoff was a compromise between congressional leaders and the White House to delay a decision on the conduct of the year 2000 census until agreement was reached between the two political branches. However, there has been no resolution of the political impasse between Congress and the Administration.

The Judiciary, as an independent branch of government, should be freed from the funding exclusion. "The Judiciary should not, and does not, have any role in this debate," the Chief Justice wrote, "as the resolution of this issue very properly rests with the political branches of government. The Judiciary's appropriations should, therefore, also be free from entanglement in this political dispute."

In his letter, the Chief Justice noted that every sector of the judicial branch would be affected should the June 15 cutoff remain. Court operations would be curtailed, including the function of probation and pretrial services officers who supervise 120,000 released criminals and defendants.

The federal court system is composed of the Supreme Court, the 12 geographic-based courts of appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Court of International Trade, and 94 district courts, with their bankruptcy court units. Last fiscal year over 49,000 cases were filed in the courts of appeals. Over 282,000 criminal and civil cases were filed in district courts with well over 1 million bankruptcy cases filed in bankruptcy courts.

A copy of the Chief Justice's letter is available on the Judiciary's website at www.uscourts.gov.