Vol. 36, Number 2—February 2004

A Call for More Communication

Judges and members of Congress engaged in a rare exchange of perspectives during a recent Supreme Court Fellows Program panel discussion on the relationship between Congress and the federal courts.

All appeared to agree that more such exchanges would be beneficial.

Judges from each level of the federal Judiciary—Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Judge Robert Katzmann of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Chief Judge John Heyburn II of the Western District of Kentucky—joined Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia for the 90-minute program. U.S. Sentencing Commission member Michael O'Neill also participated.


"We do not pay attention to each other," Specter said. "I would suggest that the courts keep an eye on what Congress is doing."

Speaking about the PROTECT Act's Feeney Amendment, Specter said: "There's been a problem on the sentencing issue. The controversy on limiting discretion of the judges on sentencing in certain categories of cases really snuck into a bill that was directed at something else . . . . The subject matter of downward sentencing, and the straitjacket which the courts have been put in is something that ought to be reconsidered by the Congress . . . . This is an item which ought to be revisited."

Breyer suggested reviving programs that once provided opportunities for members of Congress and federal judges to talk to each other.

What is at stake in such discussions, Katzmann said, "is the preservation of the means by which justice is dispensed."