Establishing Justice in Middle America: A History of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

472 Pages·2007·4.94 MB·English

by  Jeffrey Brandon Morris

ESTABLISHING JUSTICE
IN MIDDLE AMERICA
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ESTABLISHING
JUSTICE
MIDDLE
IN
AMERICA
A History of
the United States Court of Appeals
for the Eighth Circuit
JEFFREY BRANDON MORRIS
FOREWORD BY WILLIAM H. WEBSTER
PUBLISHED FOR THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF
THE UNITED STATES COURTS IN THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Copyright 2007 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401 - 2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
Morris, Jeffrey Brandon, 1941–
Establishing justice in Middle America : a history of the United States
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit / Jeffrey Brandon Morris.
p. cm.
“Published for the Historical Society of the United States Courts
in the Eighth Circuit.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4816-0 (hc : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8166-4816-6 (hc : alk. paper)
1. United States. Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)-History. I. Title.
KF87528th .M67 2007
347.73'2409-dc22
2007023934
Printed in the United States of America on acid -f ree paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal - opportunity educator and employer.
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To
Frank J. Macchiarola
Whitney North Seymour Jr.
David G. Trager
living proof that great and good people
still go into the public service
and perform with honor
while remaining kind and thoughtful
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c on t e n t s
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foreword William H. Webster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xiii
acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
introduction
Middle America during the Nineteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . .1
1. “An Empire in Itself”: The Eighth Circuit before 1891 . . . . . .15
2. The Early Years, 1891–1929 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
3. The Sanborn Court, 1929–1959 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
4. The Era of the Warren Court, 1956–1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5. The Moderately Liberal Court of the 1970s . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189
6. “Debate, Differences, and a Robust Exchange of Ideas”:
The Eighth Circuit during the 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
7. Leaving the Old Century and Entering the New . . . . . . . . 287
afterword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .415
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f or e wor d
(cid:43)(cid:3)(cid:43)(cid:3)(cid:43)(cid:3)(cid:43)(cid:3)(cid:43)(cid:3)(cid:43)(cid:3)(cid:43)
William H. Webster
Much has been written about the history and workings of the U.S.
Supreme Court and the justices who have served there. It may come as a
surprise to some that in the exercise of its certiorari powers, the Supreme
Court annually hears less than 2 percent of the appeals from the cases
decided in the circuit courts of this country. Thus, in a real sense, these
thirteen circuits are the courts of last resort for some 98 percent of the
cases in the federal system.
Yet, outside the legal profession, relatively little is known of our circuit
courts, how they are composed, how cases are decided, and their impres-
sive history. One is more apt to read in the press or hear in the media that
“a federal appeals court sitting in St. Louis has held that . . .” Very little
information that might enlighten the general public is included about the
diverse backgrounds of the judges or the history of the circuits.
This is, I might add, how most circuit judges like it. They work in
their individual chambers throughout the circuit and collectively, when
cases are argued before them, and communicate with each other by to-
day’s most modern means. Their opinions are signed and published, as
in the Supreme Court, but with far greater anonymity and much more
media focus on the outcome rather than the author.
In this history of the Eighth Circuit Court, professor Jeffrey Brandon
Morris has undertaken to record how federal justice came to Middle
America, tracing its development from the earliest days following the
Louisiana Purchase and the pathway to the West set by Meriwether
Lewis and William Clark, who started their long journey at St. Louis on
May 14, 1804. It is a fascinating story and deserves to be told.
In its earliest stages, the Eighth Circuit covered approximately one -
t hird of continental America— a gigantic territory. As trial courts were
[ ix ]