Rugged justice : the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the American West, 1891-1941 PDF
Preview Rugged justice : the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the American West, 1891-1941
RUGGED JUSTICE The Ninth Circuit Court ofAppeals and the American West, 1891-1941 David C. Frederick Foreword by ^)andra Day O'Connor GED ..J JUSTICE The Ninth C'irciiit Cx)urt ofAppeals and the Ameriean West, 1891-1941 Da\id C. Frederick Foreword by Sandra Day (^'C.onnor nuningcase i^^olvcd ayoungC!hinesc woman sla\'c who escaped to the United States and arranged a marriage ofconvenience {o a\oid being returned to her slave master in Cdiina. The district court concluded that her deportation N\ould essentially remand her to a life ofslaxery. Inoneofhis\en'rare opinionsreversingadistrict court ruling. Ninth Circuit Judge Gilbert found that the thirteenth amendment did not apply in thiscase. 'We regretthatthelawissowrittenthat ildoesnotpernfttus,asweviewit,toyieldtorhe humane considerations which actuated the coint below,'hewrote/" — Fromthebook few chapters in Amciican judicial history ha\e a past as colorful as that ofthe U.S. C\)urt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, whose jurisdiction encompasses California, Oregon, Nevatla, Washington, Idaho, xMontana, Arizona, Hawaii, and Alaska. In the hrst Hftvvears afterits creation in 1891, this court handled a \side range ofcases involving railroads, the Alaska gold rush, disputes o\er natural resources, and the evolution ofthe labormovement. I.)a\id Frederick culled archival sources, includ ingcourt recordsandlawyers'' and judges' papers, in I,OS Angeles, St. I.ouis, San Francisco, Portland, Eugene, and Washington, I^.C., and here explores how the court and its judges embodied the same pioneering impulse as other newcomers to the West. In 1895, for example. Ninth Circuit adjudicated United States v. a. case ofenormous ramifications that I rhr liability ofrailroad robb' paid loans obtained t* anscontincntal railroad. The courtruler ofMrs. Jane Stanford, \\idos\ ofa railroad mag- nate, thereby saving her fledgling college Rugged Justice This One 1EGD-APJ-2X2L Rugged Justice The Ninth Circuit Court ofAppeals and the American West, 1891-1941 David C. Frederick With a Foreword by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley • LosAngeles • London Copyrightedmabrlal UniversityofCaliforniaPress BerkeleyandLosAngeles,California UniversityofCaliforniaPress London,England Copyright© 1994byTheRegentsoftheUniversityofCahfornia LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Frederick,DavidC. Ruggedjustice:theNinthCircuitCourtofAppealsandthe AmericanWest,1891-1941/DavidC.Frederick;forewordbySandra DayO'Connor. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-520-08381-4(alk.paper) — 1, UnitedStates.CourtofAppeals(9thCircuit) History. 2. Law—West(U.S.)—History. LTitle. KF87529th.F741994 374.78'03—dc20 [347.8073] 93-1309 CIP P9rin8ted7in6the5Un4ite3dSt2ate1sofAmerica Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetsthe—minimumrequirementsofAmerican NationalStandardforInformationSciences ^PermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary Materials,ANSIZ39.48-1984.© Inlargemeasuretheworkofajustandablejudgeistakenfor granted. He works in seclusion. His opinions do not attract wide attention, and, if for some unusual circumstance the publicnotesthedecision,theinterestisbuttemporary.Hecan expectnomonumentsofstone,noheroicstatueinthemarket placeoratthecrossroads.Thesearereservedforthesoldier, thesailor,andtheexecutive,theresultsofwhoseworkis[sic] moreobvious.Kingdomsriseandfall,warsarewonorlost, andallcanseethedramaticresultandcrownthevictor.But theresultsofjudicialworkarenotspectacular.Theireffectis not as a rule obvious, nor can such an effect be readily anticipated or traced. Nevertheless, silently and constantly judgesareengagedinbuildingtheTempleofJusticeinwhich futuregenerationsaretodwell.Justiceisessentialto happi- ness. Injustice produces unhappiness and provokes disorder andwar.Thejudge,ifheisworthyandsuccessful,winsthe battlesandthewarsthatareneverfought,thatis, hisgood workpreventswars,andrendersunnecessarythestruggleof thesoldier. JudgeCurtisD. Wilbur, 1931 Contents roreword byjustice Sandra Day O Connor ix Preface xi TIntrod1ucti*on 1 1. Origins and Early Years 9 2. Railroads, Robber Barons, and the Saving of Stanford University 30 3. Testing Tolerance: Chinese Exclusion and the Ninth Circuit S7 4. Intrigue at Anvil Creek 78 5. TheJudicial Faultline: Battles over Natural Resources 98 6. Replacing the Vanguard 122 7. War, Liquor, and the Quest for Order 141 8. Different Paths to the Bench 169 9. Adjudicating the New^ Deal 187 10, A Court Too Large? 216 Conclusion 739 Appendix 245 Notes 7,47 Index 373 Illustrations following page 140 vii Foreword IthasbeenjustoveronehundredyearssinceCongresspassedtheEvarts ActestablishingthecircuitcourtofappealsonMarch3,1891.Thefirst session of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was convened in San FranciscoonJune16,1891,byCircuitJusticeStephenJ.Field.Thestory of that circuit now spans more than a century, a period of western expansionanddevelopmentthatisreflectedinthecasesandopinionsof thecircuitcourt.Thisremarkablehistorythroughthefirstfiftyyearsis hererecountedbyDavidFrederick. TheEvartsActsignaledasignificantchangefortheSupremeCourt ofthe United States and its justices. The establishment of a court of appeals andtheexpansionofthe discretionarypowerofthe Supreme Courttograntordenyreviewinmanycasesmeantthatfrom1891 on thegreatmajorityoffederalcourtappellatedecisionmakingwouldbe made atthe level ofthecircuitcourtofappeals. Thateffect is still felt todayastheSupremeCourtonwhichIsitacceptsforrevieweachterm lessthan 2 percentofthepetitions filed. Thegreatbulk offederal case law isdevelopedandmade inthecourtsofappeals.Itistherethatwe mustlookfor a broad understandingoffederallaw. Mr. Frederick has wiselychosen to analyze how the Ninth Circuit helpedshapethedevelopmentoftheWestfrom1891to1941.Thiswork chroniclesthestoryofhowafederalcasehelpedsavemyalmamater, StanfordUniversity.Itrelateshowthecourtdealtwiththeexclusionof Chineseinthelatenineteenthandearlytwentiethcenturies.Itexplains howthecourtavertedacrisisduringtheAlaskagoldrushdays.These ix Copyrightedmaterial X Foreword and many other illustrations ofthe court's role in western expansion make fascinating reading. Wallace Stegnerhaswritten: Thereissomethingtothenotionofwesternindependence;thereissomething aboutlivinginbigemptyspace,wherepeoplearefewanddistant,undera greatskythatisalternatelysereneandfurious,exposedtosunfrom—fourin themorningtillnineatnight,andtoawindthatneverseemstorest there issomethingaboutexposuretothatbigcountrythatnotonlytellsanindi- vidualhowsmallheis,butsteadilytellshimwhoheis. WallaceStegner, WheretheBluebirdSings totheLemonadeSprings(1992) The reader will have a rich and rewarding experience following the historyofthe largestandmostdiversefederalcircuitinthe"bigcoun- try." Throughitwecan betterlearnwhoweare. justiceSandraDay O'Connor Copyrightedmaterial Preface Icameuponthisprojectsomewhataccidentally.Lookingforawayto accommodatethecareerofmywife,Susan,IdiscussedwithJudgeJoseph T. Sneed ways ofspending an additional year in San Francisco after I finishedmyclerkshipwithhim.Knowingofmyinterestinlegalhistory, hesuggestedthatIwriteaproposaltotheNinthCircuitoutliningwhat Ithoughtwasafeasiblehistoricalstudytobeundertakenduringtheyear afterIcompleted myjudicial clerkship. This book is the resultofthat proposal. When I say that this book would not have been possible withoutthosetwopeople,then,IamspeakingtheUteraltruth! InmyproposaltotheNinthCircuitIsuggestedexploringtherolethe courtplayedinwesterndevelopment.Ratherthanengageinastraight- forwardinstitutionalstudyandchartpersonnelchangesinthecourt,I hoped toexamine howthecourt participated inthe development pro- cess. I also wanted to feel freeto make historical judgments about the courtand thejudgeswhoserved on it. Thus, I insistedontwo precon- ditionsfrom theNinth Circuitbefore agreeingtowritethisbook: first, that the court would exercise no control over the substance of the manuscript;and,second,thatthestudywouldconcludebeforethetime whenanyjudgenowlivinghadbeenappointedtothecourt.Thepresent judgeswhowereinvolvedinthisproject.ChiefJudgeCliffordWallace, formerChiefJudgesJamesBrowningandAlfredGoodwin,andJudges ArthurAlarcon,WarrenFerguson,andJosephSneed,readilyaccededto theserequests,andIowethemagreatdebtofthanksfortheirencour- agement, support,andfaiththatmyresearchwouldfinallyreachfrui- xi Copyrightedmaterial
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