Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts:

A Legal Overview

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

Summary

The U.S. Constitution established only one federal court—the U.S. Supreme Court. Beyond this,

Article III of the Constitution left it to the discretion of Congress to “ordain and establish” lower

federal courts to conduct the judicial business of the federal government. From the very first,

Congress established a host of different federal tribunals to adjudicate a variety of legal disputes.

The two central types of federal “courts”—courts established under Article III and those tribunals

that are not—differ in many respects, including with regard to their personnel, purposes, and

powers.

Courts established pursuant to Article III are mainly defined by the three central constitutional

provisions to which they are subject: resolution of cases that only present live “cases or

controversies,” lifetime tenure, and salary protection. The primary purpose for these safeguards

was to insulate the federal judiciary from potential pressures, from either the political branches or

the public, which might improperly influence the judicial decision-making process.

Notwithstanding Article III’s seemingly literal command that the “judicial power” shall extend to

all cases “arising under” the Constitution or federal law, Congress has assigned a host of cases

arising under federal law to non-Article III bodies. Unlike Article III judges, these bodies,

generally referred to as “non-Article III courts,” “legislative courts,” or “Article I courts,” enjoy

neither lifetime tenure nor salary protection. There are two main categories of non-Article III

courts. The first are standalone courts, created under Congress’s Article I power, which have

similar authority as Article III courts, such as entering their own judgments and issuing contempt

orders. Examples of legislative courts include the U.S. Tax Court; the Court of Federal Claims;

the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims; the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces; and federal

district courts in Guam, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The second

category of non-Article III tribunals is commonly referred to as “adjuncts” to Article III courts.

This category is mainly comprised of federal administrative agencies and magistrate judges.

These non-Article III bodies have been justified on several grounds. First, the Court has held that

in certain limited instances, Article III’s absolute command must give way to Congress’s exercise

of its Article I powers. This theory has been used to justify the creation of territorial courts,

military courts, and the adjudication of cases involving rights created by Congress (commonly

referred to as “public rights” cases). The second rationale is the use of “adjuncts,” judicial officers

who do not function as independent courts but instead act as a subordinate to the federal courts

with direct review of their decisions. Examples of adjuncts include the thousands of

administrative law judges who adjudicate cases coming before federal agencies and federal

magistrate judges who assist district court judges with everything from deciding motions, hearing

evidence, and trying both criminal and civil cases. Lastly, certain questions arising under federal

law may be resolved by non-Article III tribunals if the parties to the proceeding consent to such

an adjudication.

Congressional Research Service

Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

Contents

Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 1

Types of Federal Courts ................................................................................................................... 1

Article III or Constitutional Courts .................................................................................................. 2

Constitutional Basis for Article III Courts ................................................................................. 2

When Is a Court Designated an Article III Court? .................................................................... 4

Article III Courts Today............................................................................................................. 7

Why Create Inferior Article III Courts? .................................................................................... 9

Non-Article III or Legislative Courts ............................................................................................ 11

Non-Article III or Legislative Courts Today ........................................................................... 11

Why Create Legislative Courts? .............................................................................................. 12

Constitutional Basis for Legislative Courts ............................................................................. 14

Constitutional Limitations on Non-Article III Courts ............................................................. 15

Territorial Courts ............................................................................................................... 15

Military Courts .................................................................................................................. 16

Public Rights ..................................................................................................................... 17

Adjunct Theory ................................................................................................................. 20

Role of Consent ................................................................................................................. 23

Tables

Table 1. Current Article III Courts ................................................................................................... 8

Contacts

Author Contact Information........................................................................................................... 28

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

Introduction

The U.S. Constitution established only one federal court—the U. S. Supreme Court.1 In lieu of

creating other adjudicative bodies through the nation’s founding document, Article I of the

Constitution instead authorizes Congress to, in its discretion, “constitute Tribunals inferior to the

[S]upreme Court.”2 In the years following the ratification of the Constitution, Congress has

regularly exercised its power to create a host of different federal tribunals that adjudicate a variety

of legal disputes. For example, staffed by judges with lifetime tenures and salary protections, 13

federal circuit courts of appeals and over 90 federal district courts have been established by

Congress under Article III of the Constitution.3 In addition to the judges who staff those courts,

there are thousands of other judges, including administrative law judges, military judges, and

federal magistrates who serve on non-Article III tribunals created by Congress.4

Notwithstanding the seemingly broad authority vested in Congress to establish federal courts, the

Constitution does provide often sharp limits on when Congress can choose to create a federal

tribunal to adjudicate a particular legal dispute. And the scope of these constitutional limits has

been the focus of much debate, as evidenced by a long line of divided Supreme Court decisions

on the subject.5 Indeed, as one legal scholar remarked, the law respecting federal courts and in

particular the law distinguishing the powers of the various federal courts is “notoriously

unfathomable.”6 This report provides an overview of this often difficult and misunderstood area

of law, beginning with a discussion of the various types of federal tribunals. The report continues

by noting the rationales for why Congress established the breadth of different courts that exist

today and concludes with a discussion of the various factors and relevant issues that limit

Congress’s discretion in establishing federal courts.

Types of Federal Courts

Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution provides that the “judicial power” of the United States

shall be “vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time

to time ordain and establish.... ”7 Article III or “constitutional” courts are not, however, the only

body that Congress can assign the task of adjudication to under federal law. Instead, the Supreme

Court has long recognized that “the Constitution [gives] Congress wide discretion to assign the

task of adjudication in cases arising under federal law to legislative tribunals.”8 The two central

See U.S. CONST. art. III, §1 (“The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in

such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.”).

See id. art. I, §8, cl. 9.

See infra “Article III Courts Today,” at p. 7.

See generally Richard A. Posner, THE FEDERAL COURTS: CRISIS AND REFORM 26 (1985).

See, e.g., National Mut. Ins. Co. v. Tidewater Transfer Co., 337 U.S. 582, 584-600 (1949); Northern Pipeline Constr.

Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 458 U.S. 50, 105 (1982); Stern v. Marshall, 131 S. Ct. 2594, 2611 (2011).

Gene R. Nichol, Jr., Federalism, State Courts, and Section 1983, 73 VA. L. REV. 959, 959 (September 1987).

See U.S. CONST. art. III, §1.

Freytag v. Commissioner, 501 U.S. 868, 889 (1991); see also American Insurance Co. v. Canter, 1 Pet. 511, 546

(1828) (Marshall, C.J.) (“These Courts, then, are not constitutional Courts ... They are legislative Courts, created in

virtue of the general right of sovereignty which exists in the government, or in virtue of that clause which enables

Congress to make all needful rules and regulations, respecting the territory belonging to the United States.”).

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

types of federal “courts”—courts established under Article III and those tribunals that are not—

differ in many respects, including with regard to their personnel, purposes, and powers. In order

to understand these differences, this section describes the two types of federal courts, beginning

with Article III Courts.

Article III or Constitutional Courts

Courts established pursuant to Article III are mainly defined by the three central constitutional

provisions to which they are subject. First, a constitutional court can exercise the “judicial power

of the United States” to resolve “cases” and “controversies” of nine designated categories.9 The

Supreme Court has interpreted the “case-or-controversy” requirement of Article III to impose

certain rules of justiciability, such as the prohibition on advisory opinions, the requirements of

standing and ripeness, and the limitation on the ability of federal courts to decide “political

questions.”10 Second, a judge who serves on a constitutional court holds his position during “good

behavior.”11 While the Constitution does not explain what “good behavior” entails or how a

federal judge’s term can expire, the Supreme Court has adopted the view that the Good Behavior

Clause guarantees life tenure to Article III judges, “subject only to removal by impeachment.”12

Third, an Article III judge’s compensation cannot be “diminished during their Continuance in

Office.”13 The Supreme Court has interpreted the Compensation Clause to prohibit both direct

and indirect methods of lowering of an Article III judge’s pay, barring laws that either “order[] a

lower salary” for a federal judge or laws that enact a discriminatory tax that uniquely affects

federal judges.14

Constitutional Basis for Article III Courts

The three central provisions respecting Article III courts are fundamental to the basic purposes of

such courts in the American constitutional scheme. The Framers of the Constitution, while

proponents of democracy,15 were wary of any form of unchecked power, even when that power

was lodged in a democratic majority.16 As a consequence, the Framers envisioned a written

See U.S. CONST. art. III, §1. The principal bases for federal court jurisdiction are claims that arise under federal law

(such as a statute, a treaty, or the Constitution), cases involving the United States, cases where the opponents are either

citizens of different states or where one party is an alien, suits between two states, or suits based on admiralty law.

See generally Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 750 (1984). For an extended discussion of the doctrine of standing, see

CRS Report R43260, Reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts: Introducing a Public Advocate, by

(name redacted), (name redacted), and (name redacted), at pp. 21-44.

See U.S. CONST. art. III, §1.

See N. Pipeline Constr. Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 458 U.S. 50, 59 (1982) (plurality opinion); United States ex

rel. Toth v. Quarles, 350 U.S. 11, 16 (1955) (stating that “[Article III] courts are presided over by judges appointed for

life, subject only to removal by impeachment”). Scholars have at times disagreed with the Supreme Court’s conclusion.

See, e.g., Note, Bribery and Other Not So “Good Behavior”: Criminal Prosecution as a Supplement to Impeachment of

Federal Judges, 94 COLUM. L. REV. 1617, 1655 (1994) (noting “The text of the Constitution, however, does not support

this implication of life tenure subject only to impeachment.”).

See U.S. CONST. art. III, §1.

See United States v. Hatter, 532 U.S. 557, 569 (2001).

See The Federalist, No. 49, at 281-82 (James Madison) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999) (“[T]he people are the only

legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter ... is derived.... ”).

Martin H. Redish and Karen L. Drizin, Constitutional Federalism and Judicial Review: The Role of Textual Analysis,

62 N.Y.U.L. REV. 1, 15 (1987); see also THE FEDERALIST, No. 49, at 285 (James Madison) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999)

(continued...)

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

Constitution, which protected specific values, principles, and rights, as a limit of what could be

changed through ordinary political processes.17 Because the political branches naturally cannot be

expected to fairly adhere to the near-permanent constitutional limitations placed on each body, as

these branches are most directly responsive to the often temporary whims of the people, the

federal judiciary established under Article III was deliberately designed by the Framers of the

Constitution to be a “counter-majoritarian branch” that interpreted the written Constitution and

protected its principles.18 The Constitution did this by “insulating the federal judiciary” from

potential pressures, from either the political branches or the public, which could potentially “skew

the decision making process or compromise the integrity or legitimacy of federal court

decisions.”19 The key sources of the judiciary “insulation” from the political processes are the

Good Behavior Clause and the Compensation Clause of Article III. The Good Behavior Clause,

by creating a “permanent tenure of judicial offices,” ensures an “independent spirit in judges,”20

and the Compensation Clause, by creating a “fixed provision for [the judiciary’s] support,”

prevents the political branches from having power over a judge’s subsistence and, with that,

“power over his will.”21

However, just as the Framers worried about the concentration of unchecked power in either of the

political branches, so too did the founding generation have concerns regarding the reach of the

judiciary.22 Indeed, the power that “belongs” to the judiciary, as articulated by Alexander

Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, to “ascertain [the Constitution’s] meaning as well as the meaning

of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body” and, when faced with a conflict, “be

governed by [the Constitution] rather than [a legislative act],”23 is an immense power. The power

of judicial review, at bottom, entails the power of unelected officials to “apply and construe the

Constitution, in matters of the greatest moment, against the wishes of a legislative majority,

which is, in turn powerless to affect the judicial decision.”24 Notwithstanding the scope of this

power, the Framers of the Constitution were untroubled by the potential reach of the judiciary

because Article III judges were limited to ruling in certain circumstances and could only exercise

that power “when other actors—public officials and private citizens—created justiciable cases

(...continued)

(“But it is the reason, alone, of the public, that ought to control and regulate the government. The passions ought to be

controlled and regulated by the government.”)

See Redish and Drizin, supra note 16, at 15. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist No. 78, envisioned a “limited

Constitution” that “contains certain specified exceptions” to a given branches power – such as the prohibition on the

legislature’s ability to enact bills of attainder or ex post facto laws. See THE FEDERALIST, No. 78, at 434 (Alexander

Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).

See THE FEDERALIST, No. 78, at 435 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999) (“[C]ourts were designed to be an

intermediate body between the people and the legislature in order ... to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their

authority.”); see generally ALEXANDER M. BICKEL, THE LEAST DANGEROUS BRANCH: THE SUPREME COURT AT THE BAR OF

POLITICS 16-17 (1962).

Martin H. Redish, Federal Judicial Independence: Constitutional and Political Perspectives, 46 MERCER L. REV.

697, 700-701 (1995).

See THE FEDERALIST, No. 78, at 437 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).

See THE FEDERALIST, No. 79, at 440 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).

See generally Martin Kellner, Congressional Grants of Standing in Administrative Law and Judicial Review:

Proposing a New Standing Doctrine from a Declegation Perspective, 30 HAMLINE L. REV. 315, 323 (Spring 2007)

(noting that the opponents to the Constitution, the Anti-Federalists, “worried that federal judges would subversively

abuse their power of law declaration and might substitute their own will for that of the people expressed through the

states.”).

THE FEDERALIST, No. 78, at 435-36 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).

See Bickel, supra note 12, at 20.

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

and controversies for them.”25 As a consequence, as famously described by Alexander Hamilton,

the Framers envisioned the judiciary as being the “least dangerous” branch of the government.26

When Is a Court Designated an Article III Court?

Given the host of different types of constitutional courts, a fundamental question is when must a

court be considered one that has been established under Article III and subject to Article III’s

restrictions. The answer to that question has produced, in the words of Justice John Marshall

Harlan II, “much confusion and controversy.”27 Perhaps the best answer to the question of when a

court can be deemed an Article III court comes from the 1962 Supreme Court case of Glidden v.

Zdanok.28

Glidden involved a challenge to a judgment issued in part by a judge of the Court of Claims while

that judge was sitting by designation on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.29 In an earlier case,

Williams v. United States, the Supreme Court had held that the Court of Claims was not an Article

III court because the matters being brought before the court were not of the type that an Article III

court generally adjudicates: primarily monetary claims against the government.30 The Williams

Court held as such, notwithstanding that the law creating the Court of Claims did not limit the

tenure of judges on the court or provide the authority of the salaries of the judges on that court.31

In the intervening years since Williams, Congress had declared the Court of Claims was “created

under Article III.”32 Notwithstanding that declaration, the petitioner in Glidden argued, relying on

Williams, that his constitutional right to have an Article III court adjudicate the breach of contract

See Jonathan T. Molot, Principled Minimalism: Restricting the Balance between Judicial Minimalism and Neutral

Principles, 90 VA. L. REV. 1753, 1761-1762 (2004).

THE FEDERALIST, No. 78, at 433 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).

370 U.S. 530, 534 (1962) (Harlan, J.) (plurality opinion).

Id.

Over a dissenting opinion, the judge from the Court of Claims wrote the controlling opinion reversing order of the

district court. Id. at 532. The case also involved a challenge to a judgment issued by a retired judge from the Court of

Customs and Patent Appeals sitting by designation on the District of Columbia federal district court. Id. For simplicity

and because the issues regarding each challenge are fairly identical, the description of the Glidden case in this report is

limited to the challenge to the designation of the Court of Claims judge.

289 U.S. 553, 580-581 (1933). In a much maligned opinion, see Freytag v. Commissioner, 501 U.S. 868, 914 (1991)

(Scalia, J., concurring) (calling Williams “an opinion whose understanding of the principles of separation of powers

ought not inspire confidence, much less prompt emulation” and noting that Williams “has been declared an ‘intellectual

disaster’ by commentators”), the Court in Williams noted that (1) monetary claims against the government are only

actionable upon a waiver of sovereign immunity, (2) “there is no constitutional right to a judicial remedy” with respect

to such claims, (3) that “the authority to inquire into and decide [such claims] may constitutionally be conferred on a

nonjudicial officer or body.” 289 U.S. at 579-80. The Court then surmised that because of those three observations that

it “follows indubitably” that the power to adjudicate a monetary claim against the government, “in whatever guise or by

whatever agency exercised, is no part of the judicial power vested in the constitutional courts by the third article.” Id. at

580-81. The Court had made a similar holding with respect to the Court of Customs Appeals in Ex parte Bakelite Corp.

four years before the Williams case. See 279 U.S. 438, 460 (1929).

See 289 U.S. at 562 (citing Act of February 24, 1855, c. 122, 10 Stat. 612). The litigation in Williams occurred as a

result of the Legislative Appropriation Act of June 30, 1932 that set the pay “of all judges (except judges whose

compensation may not, under the Constitution, be diminished during their continuance in office)” at a rate of $10,000

per annum, $2,500 less than what Williams, a judge on the Court of Claims made the previous year. 289 U.S. at 559.

The Comptroller General held that the Court of Claims was not an Article III court and reduced Williams’s pay

accordingly. Id.

Glidden Co., 370 U.S. at 541; see also Act of July 28, 1953, §1, 67 Stat. 226.

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

claim was violated because a judge from a non-Article III court was designated to the case on

appeal.33

The Supreme Court issued a splintered decision in Glidden ultimately holding that the Court of

Claims was an Article III court making the designation of the Court of Claims judge to the

Second Circuit panel constitutionally valid.34 Justice Harlan, writing for a plurality of three,

argued that Williams should be overturned because the question of whether a court is an Article

III court does not turn on the nature of the court’s subject matter, but instead on whether the

court’s “establishing legislation complies with the limitations” of Article III.35 In concluding that

the Court of Claims was an Article III court, Justice Harlan noted that the establishing legislation

complied with the three central constitutional provisions pertaining to constitutional courts—

namely the Good Behavior Clause, the Compensation Clause, and the case-or-controversy

requirement.36 Specifically, Justice Harlan noted that (1) Court of Claims judges had been given

life tenure to ensure their independence;37 (2) Congress had not provided that the salary of a

Court of Claims judge be subject to diminution;38 and (3) Congress had provided the Court of

Claims with the authority to rule on “cases and controversies” by, for example, respecting the

finality of the rulings of the court and by providing the court jurisdiction over justiciable

matters.39 In other words, for Justice Harlan, what mattered in determining the status of the Court

of Claims as an Article III court was not the nature of the court’s subject-matter jurisdiction, nor

an after-the-fact declaration by Congress that the Court was considered an Article III Court,40 but

the nature of the enabling legislation for the court.41 Justice Clark and Chief Justice Warren

concurred in the judgment of the Court, but found it unnecessary to overrule Williams because of

the intervening declaration by Congress that the Court of Claims was an Article III court42 and

because of changes in the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims to make the court more like an

Article III court.43

See Glidden Co., 370 U.S at 533.

Id. at 530.

Id. at 552 (Harlan, J.) (plurality opinion). For Justice Harlan, the flaw in Williams’ logic was the assumption made in

that case that because Congress had the option of not having the claim be brought before a constitutional court that

Congress was prohibited from allowing the claim to be brought before an Article III court. Id.at 549-50 (“But because

Congress may employ such tribunals assuredly does not mean that it must. This is the crucial non sequitur of the

Bakelite and Williams opinions.”).

For a discussion of the three central constitutional provisions with respect to Article III courts, see supra “Article III

or Constitutional Courts,” at p. 2.

Glidden, 370 U.S. at 552.

Id. at 555.

Id. at 554. Justice Harlan did appear concerned with the Court of Claims’ “congressional reference” cases – cases in

which a panel of the court of claims serves as a reviewing body for a bill referred to by Congress. See 28 U.S.C. §2509.

While these cases would not ordinarily be the subject of an Article III court because they are in essence advisory

opinions and not a “case or controversy,” see Muskrat v. United States, 219 U.S. 346, 357 (1911), Justice Harlan

concluded congressional reference cases were “so minuscule a portion of [the Court of Claims] purported functions,”

that the court’s Article III status could not turn on that question. Glidden Co., 370 U.S. at 583. For an extended

discussion of the Court of Claims and congressional reference cases, see infra “Why Create Legislative Courts?,” at pp.

13-14.

Justice Harlan found the 1953 congressional declaration that the Court of Claims was a constitutional court to be

“persuasive evidence” of the nature of the court. See Glidden, 370 U.S. at 542.

Id. at 552.

Glidden Co. v. Zdanok, 370 U.S. 530, 585 (1962) (Clark, J., concurring).

Id. at 586 (noting that congressional reference cases formerly were a substantial part of the Court of Claims’

jurisdiction). Justices Douglas, joined by Justice Black, dissented in Glidden. Id. at 589 (Douglas, J., dissenting).

(continued...)

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

The specific holding of Glidden—that the Court of Claims is an Article III Court—is of little

importance today, as the Court of Claims ceased to exist in 1982 and was replaced by the Court of

Federal Claims, which is staffed by term-limited judges.44 Nonetheless, while the Glidden

decision was fractured, the case marks a clear shift from earlier jurisprudence that evaluated a

court’s Article III status based on the nature of the subject matter of cases before the court.45

Instead, the Court, when determining whether a court is a constitutional court, appears to look at

how Congress structures a court, looking to see if the structure of the court adheres to basic

requirements of Article III.46 Moreover, a majority of justices on the Glidden court appear to

reject the notion that Congress can by solely attaching a label to a court change the constitutional

nature of that court.47 Ultimately, the touchstone of when a court is a constitutional court appears

to be whether the court was established pursuant to the power and constraints provided for under

Article III of the Constitution.48

In the wake of Glidden, lower courts have largely followed the plurality’s functional approach to

determine whether a court is one established under Article III. For example, in United States v.

Cavanagh, a criminal defendant challenged whether the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

(FISA Court) was established in violation of the Constitution.49 In an opinion written by thenJudge Anthony Kennedy, the Ninth Circuit rejected the defendant’s argument, noting that

Congress, in creating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, (1) staffed the court with

judges that had lifetime tenure and salary protections50 and (2) had the court adjudicate matters

that sounded in a “case-or-controversy.”51 In other words, in line with the Glidden plurality, the

Cavanagh court concluded that a court is an Article III court so long as it is established pursuant

to the contours of Article III.52

(...continued)

Justices Frankfurter and White did not participate in the case. Id.at 530.

See Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982, P.L. 97-164, Section 105(a), §§171-77, 96 Stat. 25, 27-28; see also 28

U.S.C. §171(a) (2000) (“The court [of Federal Claims] is declared to be a court established under article I of the

Constitution of the United States.”).

See Ex Parte Bakelite, 279 U.S. at 460; see also Williams, 289 U.S. at 562. This rejection of the principle of Williams

appears in line with the modern administrative state, where Article III courts, such as the circuit courts of appeals,

regularly review the decisions of an administrative agency.

See Glidden Co., 370 U.S. at 552 (Harlan, J.); id. at 585 (Clark, J., concurring).

Id. at 541-543 (plurality) (finding that while the congressional declaration was persuasive, the Court is the “ultimate

expositor of the Constitution.”); id. at 585 (Clark, J., concurring) (“Not that this ipse dixit made the Court of Claims an

Article III court.... ”).

Id. at 552 (Harlan, J.) (plurality opinion).

United States v. Cavanagh, 807 F.2d 787, 791 (9th Cir. 1987).

Id. at 791 (“We need not address appellant’s suggestion that FISA applications must be passed upon by article III

judges, as the judges assigned to serve on the FISA court are federal district judges, and as such they are insulated from

political pressures by virtue of the protections they enjoy under article III, namely life tenure and a salary that cannot be

diminished.”)

Id. (citing United States v. Megahey, 553 F. Supp. 1180, 1196 (E.D.N.Y. 1982)).

The Cavanagh court was untroubled by the contention that because a judge was only temporarily designated to the

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, that the court was not composed of judges having life tenure protections. 807

F.2d at 792. The Ninth Circuit, citing Glidden, noted the broad principle that a judge’s temporary designation to a court

within the federal judicial system does not “undermine the judicial independence that Article III was intended to

secure” as the judge’s on that court do not lose their life tenure or salary protections. Id.

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

Article III Courts Today

Today the system of courts established under Article III consists of three layers of review.53 Cases

are generally brought in one of 9154 federal district courts,55 and litigants typically are allowed to

appeal a district court’s final decision to one of the 12 regional courts of appeal.56 Federal district

and circuit judges are primarily generalists, with “limited knowledge of [any] specialized field.”57

As one prominent scholar described the typical work of an Article III judge:

Judges have heavy caseloads ... Judges have to research, analyze, and address an

extraordinarily wide range of issues ... Each judge must be able to resolve a major civil rights

dispute on Monday, a major environmental law dispute on Tuesday, and a major commercial

law dispute on Wednesday. Judges have little time or opportunity for reflection, detailed

analysis of an area of law, or development of special expertise in any field of law.58

Nonetheless, there do exist a limited number of Article III courts that have a jurisdiction limited

by subject matter, as opposed to geographic area, making these courts somewhat specialized. The

most prominent example of such a specialized Article III court is the Court of Appeals for the

Federal Circuit. The Federal Circuit takes appeals from federal district courts and certain

administrative bodies and Article I courts with respect to a host of subject areas, including

international trade, government contracts, patents, trademarks, certain money claims against the

U.S. government, federal personnel issues, veterans’ benefits, and public safety officers’ benefits

claims.59 In addition to the Federal Circuit, Congress has, throughout history, established other

specialized Article III courts.60 Today, in addition to the Federal Circuit, there are five specialized

Article III courts, four of which are staffed temporarily by Article III judges from other courts.

First, the FISA Court, which is responsible for issuing warrants authorizing the government to

conduct certain espionage activities, is staffed by federal district judges who serve nonrenewable,

staggered terms of up to seven years.61 The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 also

See 28 U.S.C. §41 (establishing the thirteen judicial circuits of the United States); see also 28 U.S.C. §§81-131

(establishing ninety-one district courts).

See CRS Report R43426, U.S. Circuit and District Court Judges: Profile of Select Characteristics, by (name red

acted), at p. 2. Congress has established three additiona

l territorial courts (titled “district courts”) pursuant to

Article IV. See 48 U.S.C. §§1424, 1611, 1821 (establishing non-life tenured judges for courts in Guam, the Virgin

Islands, and the Northern Marianas Islands).

See, e.g., 28 U.S.C. §1331 (providing district courts with “original jurisdiction of all civil actions arising under the

Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States.”); 28 U.S.C. §1332 (providing district courts with “original

jurisdiction of all civil actions where the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $75,000 ... and is between”

diverse parties). Some statutes allow for direct review of administrative actions in the circuit courts of appeal,

bypassing the district courts. See, e.g., 33 U.S.C. §1369(b)(1) (providing that review of the Environmental Protection

Agency’s actions under the Clean Water Act “may be had by any interested person in the Circuit Court of Appeals of

the United States for the Federal judicial district in which such person resides or transacts business which is directly

affected by such action upon application by such person.”).

See 28 U.S.C. §1291.

See Ind. Lumbermens Mut. Ins. Co. v. Reinsurance Results, Inc., 513 F.3d 652, 658 (7th Cir. 2008) (Posner, J.).

Richard J. Pierce, Jr., The Relationship Between the District of Columbia Circuit and Its Critics, 67 GEO. WASH. L.

REV. 797, 798 (1999).

See 28 U.S.C. §1295; see generally Court Jurisdiction, U.S. CT. APPEALS FED. CIRCUIT,

http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/the-court/court-jurisdiction.html (last visited June 8, 2015).

See, e.g., Emergency Court of Appeals, see Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, Pub. L. No. 77-421, §204(c), 56

Stat. 23, 32 (1942); see also Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals, see Economic Stabilization Act Amendments of

1971, Pub. L. No. 92-210, §211(b), 85 Stat. 743, 749 (1971).

See 50 U.S.C. §1803(a), (d).

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

established an appellate court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review,

consisting of three judges from the federal district and courts of appeals whose role it is review

certain orders issues by the FISA Court.62 Third, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation,

which is empowered to transfer to a single district multiple civil cases whose pretrial proceedings

may benefit from consolidation and coordination, consists of a mix of district judges and circuit

judges designated by the Chief Justice.63 Fourth, the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, which

reviews ex parte applications from the Department of Justice to order removal of certain aliens

from the United States based on classified information, consists of five district court judges

designated by the Chief Justice for staggered terms of five years.64 Fifth, the Court of

International Trade, whose jurisdiction focuses on a host of trade-related matters, is an Article III

tribunal composed of nine judges appointed by the President.65 Table 1 lists the current Article III

courts in federal judicial system.

Table 1. Current Article III Courts

Name of Court

Number of Jurists

Provided for in Law

Supreme Court of the

United States

9 total, see 28 U.S.C. §1

Regional Federal Circuit

Courts of Appeal (1st, 2nd,

3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th,

10th, 11th, D.C.)

167 total divided between

the 12 regional courts of

appeal, see 28 U.S.C. §44

Staffed by . . .

Description of Court

Justices, appointed by the

President with Senate

advice and consent

Generalist, Appellate

Circuit court judges,

appointed by the President

with Senate advice and

consent

Generalist, Appellate

See id. §1803(b). Judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review serve for terms seven years. Id.

§1803(d). Notwithstanding the limited terms that a judge serves on the courts established under the Foreign Intelligence

Surveillance Act, case law has viewed those courts as having been established pursuant to Article III. See United States

v. Cavanagh, 807 F.2d 787, 791 (9th Cir. 1987) (Kennedy, J.) (“[Appellant] ... appears to suggest that the FISA court is

not properly constituted under [A]rticle III because the statute does not provide for life tenure on the FISA court. This

argument has been raised in a number of cases and has been rejected by the courts. We reject it as well.”). The rationale

for such rulings appears to stem from historic practices of allowing Supreme Court justice to preside as circuit judges

for extended periods of time without receiving a separate commission to serve as a circuit judge. See, e.g., Stuart v.

Laird, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 299, 309 (1803).

See 28 U.S.C. §1407. Like the FISA Court the temporary assignment of a judge to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict

Litigation does not appear to deprive that court of its Article III status. See Cavanagh, 807 F.2d at 792 (citing the

Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation as example of the “substantial precedent for the temporary assignment of

lower federal judges by the Chief Justice to serve on various specialized courts.”). It should be noted, however, that the

Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, in contrast to other Article III courts, has a primarily administrative role:

passing on petitions for the transfer of civil actions with “one or more common questions of fact ... pending in different

districts” to a single district for coordinate pretrial proceedings.

8 U.S.C. §1532(a). The U.S. Alien Terrorist Removal Court has yet to meet as a court. See, e.g. Won Kindane,

Procedural Due Process in the Expulsion of Aliens Under International, United States, and European Law: A

Comparative Analysis, 27 EMORY INT’L L. REV. 285, 322 (2013) (noting that the Alien Terrorist Removal Procedure

has “never been utilized.”). While some have referred to the Alien Terrorist Removal Court as a “Article I court”

because it was created by Congress, see, e.g., Justin Florence, Making the No Fly List Fly: A Due Process Model for

Terrorist Watchlists, 115 YALE L.J. 2148, 2178 (2006), given that the court is staffed entirely by Article III judges

serving in adjudicative role, it appears likely that the Alien Terrorist Removal Court would be considered an Article III

court. See Cavanagh, 807 F.2d at 792.

See 28 U.S.C. §251; see generally U.S. COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE, About the Court,

http://www.cit.uscourts.gov/AboutTheCourt.html#jurisdiction (last visited June 8, 2015).

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

Number of Jurists

Provided for in Law

Name of Court

Staffed by . . .

Description of Court

Regional District Courts

655 total divided between

the 91 regional district

courts, see 28 U.S.C. §133

District court judges,

appointed by the President

with Senate advice and

consent

Generalist, primarily

courts of first impression

Court of Appeals for the

Federal Circuit

12 total, see 28 U.S.C. §44

Circuit court judges,

appointed by the President

with Senate advice and

consent

Specialized, Appellate

Foreign Intelligence

Surveillance Court of

Review

3 total, see 50 U.S.C.

§1803(b)

Circuit and district court

judges, designated by the

Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court

Specialized, Appellate

Foreign Intelligence

Surveillance Court

11 total, see 50 U.S.C.

§1803(a)

District court judges,

designated by the Chief

Justice of the Supreme

Court

Specialized, court of first

impression

Judicial Panel on

Multidistrict Litigation

7 total, see 28 U.S.C.

§1407(d)

Circuit and district court

judges, designated by the

Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court

Specialized, Administrative

Alien Terrorist Removal

Court

5 total, see 8 U,S,C, §1532

District court judges,

designated by the Chief

Justice of the Supreme

Court

Specialized, court of first

impression

Court of International

Trade

9 total, see 28 U.S.C. §251

Judges of the U.S. Court of

International Trade,

appointed by the President

with Senate advice and

consent

Specialized, court of first

impression and appellate

review of certain

administrative actions

Source: Created by CRS.

Why Create Inferior Article III Courts?

Article III of the Constitution neither establishes nor requires the establishment of lower federal

courts. Instead, the Constitution envisions Congress “from time to time” establishing federal

courts that are “inferior” to the Supreme Court,66 and it is generally accepted that Congress could

have left state courts as the primary courts for matters respecting federal law.67 Given the strict

limits that are imposed on how Congress may deploy Article III courts—lifetime appointments,

inability to reduce salaries of federal judges for poor performance, and the host of restrictions that

are implied by the “case-or-controversy” requirement—one might question why Congress has

chosen to create the number of Article III courts that it has.

See U.S. CONST. art. III, §1.

See Lockerty v. Phillips, 319 U.S. 182, 187 (1943) (“[Congress] could have declined to create any such courts,

leaving suitors to the remedies afforded by state courts, with such appellate review by this Court as Congress might

prescribe.”).

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Two central arguments underlie why Congress has opted to create inferior Article III courts. First,

Congress’s interest in creating lower federal courts aligns with the Framers’ intentions for Article

III courts: Article III courts, which are insulated from political pressures through salary and

tenure protections, provide a legal forum to help ensure compliance with federal legal interests,

including those enshrined in the Constitution. Not only does the existence of an independent

federal judiciary provide a bulwark against encroachments by federal political branches on civil

and structural rights,68 without an independent federal judiciary, original litigation on federal

claims would arise in state courts. The Framers, who had just witnessed the resulting chaos of

decentralization during the Articles of Confederation, considered that having such power in the

exclusive province of state courts “presented a real threat to the enforcement of federal law

against the states,”69 and consequently, the first Congress, in the Judiciary Act of 1789,

established the system of lower federal courts.70 The quintessential example of the value of lower

federal courts in protecting federal interests came in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in

Brown v. Board of Education prohibiting de jure school segregation where, in stark contrast to the

behavior of state courts, the aggressive enforcement of Brown’s mandate by lower federal courts

was, in the words of one prominent legal scholar, “essential in desegregating many southern

school systems.”71

The second primary reason Congress has chosen to employ Article III courts as a forum for

adjudication is that the constitutional protections afforded to Article III judges tend to attract high

quality judges that embed any judicial process with a status unrivaled by other federal and state

courts. As the Supreme Court has noted, life tenure and salary protections “helps to promote

public confidence in judicial determinations” and “to attract well-qualified persons to the federal

bench.”72 The Court’s assessment is supported by a recent study by the Congressional Research

Service indicating that of the active U.S. Circuit Court judges, 54.6% of those judges had prior

judicial experience and those that did not were primarily long-established private practitioners or

law professors.73 The status of Article III judges, in turn, allows such courts to attract high level

candidates for their staff, including law clerks “who most often have strong academic credentials

from top law schools, to work for one year prior to entering private practice or some other legal

career.”74 And the perceived quality of the federal judiciary established under Article III has not

been lost in congressional debates over whether to establish a new Article III court. For example,

long-time efforts by the bankruptcy bar to transform the bankruptcy court into an Article III court

have contended that “life-tenured judges would be more autonomous, more powerful, and enjoy

more prestige, and that the bankruptcy court consequently would attract better judges.”75

See THE FEDERALIST, No. 78, at 435 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).

See James E. Pfander, Rethinking the Supreme Court’s Original Jurisdiction in State-Party Cases, 82 CALIF. L. REV.

555, 559 (May 1994).

See Judiciary Act of 1789, ch. 20, 1 Stat. 73, 73.

See Erwin Chemerinsky, Ending the Parity Debate, 71 B.U.L. REV. 593, 596 (July 1991).

See N. Pipeline Constr. Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 458 U.S. 50, 60 n.10 (1982) (plurality opinion).

See CRS Report R43538, U.S. Circuit Court Judges: Profile of Professional Experiences Prior to Appointment, by

(name redacted).

See Maxwell L. Stearns, Survey: VII Judicial Decisionmaking: Appellate Courts Inside and Out, 101 Mich. L. Rev.

1764, 1771 (May 2003).

See Eric G. Beherens, Stern v. Marshall: The Supreme Court’s Continuing Erosion of Bankruptcy Court Jurisdiction

and Article I Courts, 85 AM. BANKR. L.J. 387, 390 (Fall 2011) (describing lobby efforts to create an Article III

bankruptcy court); see generally Lawrence Baum, Specializing the Federal Courts: Neutral Reforms or Efforts To

Shape Judicial Policy?, 74 JUDICATURE 217, 219 (1991) (“Another difference, among the courts with permanent

(continued...)

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

Non-Article III or Legislative Courts

As noted above, Article III of the Constitution commands that “the judicial Power of the United

States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may

from time to time ordain and establish.”76 A literal interpretation of Article III would seem to

require that every case that falls within the “judicial Power of the United States” must be

adjudicated in forums before judges cloaked with Article III protections.77 Again, this is to ensure

that judges will not be swayed by political pressure and can hand down decisions without fear of

reprisal from the democratically elected branches.78 Notwithstanding this command, Congress has

assigned to non-Article III bodies—that is, forums with judicial officers who do not enjoy Article

III guarantees—the authority to adjudicate a large swath of cases that would seemingly fall within

the “judicial power” traditionally allocated to Article III courts. These entities, which extend back

to the earliest days of the Republic,79 include specialized stand-alone courts, administrative

agencies, and magistrate judges who serve under Article III judges. This section will survey the

various types of non-Article III courts; explore the various historical, legal, and practical

justifications for their uses; and provide an analytical framework for determining when nonArticle III courts can be employed.

Non-Article III or Legislative Courts Today

Before exploring the justification and scope of non-Article III courts, it is necessary to establish a

working definition of what a non-Article III court is and provide some examples. First, these

adjudicatory entities have been called by various names: “non-Article III courts,”80 “Article I

courts,”81 “Article I tribunals,”82 “legislative courts,”83 or “administrative courts.”84 Although

(...continued)

judges, is that between Article I ‘legislative’ courts and Article III courts; the latter have greater prestige, and their

judges hold lifetime terms.”). The perceived quality of Article III judges could tempt Congress to deploy Article III

judges in roles that are not typically engaged in by the judiciary. However, in a footnote, the Court in Mistretta v.

United States cautioned that separation-of-powers concerns may prevent Congress from delegating a non-adjudicatory

function, such as the ability to make policy judgments, to an Article III court. See 488 U.S. 361, 394 n.20 (1989).

U.S. CONST. art. III, §1.

See Richard H. Fallon, Of Legislative Courts, Administrative Agencies, and Article III, 101 HARV. L. REV. 915, 918

(1988) (“The natural implication of [Article III, Section 1] defines a position that I shall call ‘article III literalism’:

although Congress need not create any ‘inferior’ courts unless it so chooses, if it does create any federal adjudicative

bodies, those bodies must be the constitutional courts contemplated by article III.”); James E. Pfander, Article I

Tribunals, Article III Courts, and the Judicial Power of the United States, 118 HARV. L. REV. 643, 645 (2004) (“The

literal terms of Article III appear to rule out reliance upon Article I tribunals altogether; Article III vests the judicial

power of the United States in federal courts whose judges enjoy salary and tenure protections that were designed to

ensure judicial independence in a scheme of separated powers.”); see also Erwin Chemerinsky, Formalism Without a

Foundation: Stern v. Marshall, 2011 SUP. CT. REV. 183, 190-91 (2012).

See Constitutional Rationale for Article III Courts, supra pp. 2-3.

See, e.g., American Insurance Co. v. 356 Bales of Cotton (Canter), 26 U.S. (1 Pet.) 511 (1828 (upholding use of

territorial courts).

Thomas v. Union Carbide Agr. Products Co., 473 U.S. 568, 569 (1985).

Freytag v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 501 U.S. 868, 879 (1991).

Fallon, supra note 77, at 643.

26 U.S. 512.

Paul M. Bator, The Constitution as Architecture: Legislative and Administrative Courts Under Article III, 65 IND. L.

J. 233, 264 (1990).

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there are many variations in name, structure, and duties, these bodies have a few core

commonalities. First, non-Article III judges do not enjoy life tenure, but are term-limited.85

Second, these officials do not have the luxury of constitutional salary protection.86 Third, these

judicial officials need not be appointed by the President with Senate confirmation87 (although

they sometimes are).88

There are two main categories of non-Article III courts. The first is commonly referred to as

“legislative courts” or “Article I courts.” These are standalone courts, created under Congress’s

Article I power,89 which have similar authority as Article III courts, such as entering their own

judgments and issuing contempt orders. Examples of legislative courts include the U.S. Tax

Court;90 the Court of Federal Claims;91 the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims;92 the Court of

Appeals for the Armed Forces;93 and federal district courts in Guam,94 the Virgin Islands,95 and

the Northern Mariana Islands.96 The second category of non-Article III tribunals has commonly

been referred to as “adjuncts” to Article III courts. This category is mainly comprised of federal

administrative agencies and magistrate judges. Each of these will be described in detail below, but

first it is important to understand what prompts Congress to create these judicial fora.

Why Create Legislative Courts?

Congress has opted to establish legislative courts for a number of reasons. First, some have

suggested that Congress establishes Article I courts to ensure the unique status of Article III

28 U.S.C. §631(e) (“The appointment of any individual as a full-time magistrate judge shall be for a term of eight

years, and the appointment of any individuals as a part-time magistrate judge shall be for a term of four years[.]”); 26

U.S.C. §7443 (“The term of office of any judge of the Tax Court shall expire 15 years after he takes office.”).

While some statutes tie non-Article III judge’s salary to that of U.S. District court judges, see, e.g, 26 U.S.C.

§7443(c) (“Each [Tax Court] judge shall receive salary at the same rate and in the same installments as judges of the

district courts of the United States.”), Congress could amend these statutes at any time.

28 U.S.C. §631(a) (“The judges of each United States district court and the district courts of the Virgin Islands,

Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands shall appoint United States magistrate judges in such numbers and to serve at

such locations within the judicial districts as the Judicial Conference may determine under this chapter.”); 28 U.S.C.

§152 (“Each bankruptcy judge to be appointed for a judicial district ... shall be appointed by the court of appeals of the

United States for the circuit in which such district is located.”).

26 U.S.C. §7443(b) (“Judges of the Tax Court shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and

consent of the Senate, solely on the grounds of fitness to perform the duties of the office.”); 28 U.S.C. §171 (“The

President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, sixteen judges who shall constitute a court of

record known as the United States Court of Federal Claims.”).

In many instances, Congress makes express its intent to create an Article I, versus Article III, court. See, e.g., 26

U.S.C. §7441 (“There is hereby established, under article I of the Constitution of the United States, a court of record to

be known as the United States Tax Court.”).

26 U.S.C. §7441.

See, e.g., 28 U.S.C. §171 (“The court [of Federal Claims] is declared to be a court established under article I of the

Constitution of the United States.”).

38 U.S.C. §7251 (“There is hereby established, under Article I of the Constitution of the United States, a court of

record to be known as the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.”).

10 U.S.C. §941 (“There is a court of record known as the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. The

court is established under article I of the Constitution. This court is located for administrative purposes only in the

Department of Defense.”).

48 U.S.C. §1424, 1424b.

48 U.S.C. §1611, 1614.

48 U.S.C. §1821.

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courts is preserved.97 For example, in support of establishing Article I bankruptcy courts under

the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978, several Members of Congress argued that establishing new

specialized Article III courts would “set[] a bad precedent,” as the expansion of Article III Courts

“unnecessarily” and “inevitably ... dilute[s] its prestige and influence.”98 For others, legislative

courts provide an alternative to having Article III courts “deal with the countless matters handled

in administrative agencies and in specialized tribunals like bankruptcy courts.”99

Second, given that most Article III courts are generalist in nature,100 Congress has established

specialized non-Article III tribunals that focus on a particular area of law, with the understanding

that an expert is needed to adjudicate disputes with respect to certain complex and technical areas

of law.101 For example, in establishing the predecessor to the Tax Court, Congress in 1924 created

the Board of Tax Appeals,102 recognizing the need for an adjudicative body consisting “of

‘Members’ who possessed the specialized knowledge to handle increasingly complex tax

issues.”103 In this same vein, Congress has established legislative courts within executive branch

agencies for reasons of efficiency or cost savings.104 As noted by Chief Justice Hughes in Crowell

v. Benson, a non-Article III tribunal residing in an administrative agency can “furnish a prompt,

continuous, expert and inexpensive method for dealing with a class of questions of fact which are

peculiarly suited to examination and determination by an administrative agency specially

assigned to that task.”105 And, indeed, one of the central reasons Congress allowed the

Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC) to adjudicate state law counterclaims arising in

a proceeding regarding a violation of the Commodity Exchange Act was because “Congress

intended to create an inexpensive and expeditious alternative forum” to resolve all such

disputes.106

Finally, Congress has established non-Article III tribunals to avoid the constitutional restrictions

imposed upon Article III courts. For example, in 1982, Congress reconstituted the Court of

Claims as an Article I tribunal in part so that the court could hear “congressional reference”

cases.107 A “congressional reference” case is one in which a bill for monetary relief is referred by

a resolution of either house of Congress to the Court of Claims. After conducting proceedings to

determine the factual merits, the Court of Claims, in turn, issues a report to Congress, which is

See ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, FEDERAL JURISDICTION §4.1 (6th ed. 2012) (“Desiring to keep the federal judiciary small

and prestigious, Congress might want to avoid establishing large numbers of additional judgeships.... ”).

See H.R. Rep. No. 595, 95th Cong., 1st sess. 539 (separate views of Congressmen Railsback, Danielson, Mann, and

Hyde).

See Chemerinsky, supra note 97.

100

See “When is a Court Designated an Article III Court,” supra pp. 4-6.

” at 7-9.

101

See Chemerinsky, supra note 97. The logic of establishing specialized courts, as noted by one legal scholar is that

“expert judges will produce higher-quality decisions than nonexperts.” See LAWRENCE BAUM, SPECIALIZING THE

COURTS 35 (2011).

102

See Revenue Act of 1924, ch. 234, §900(a), 43 Stat. 253, 336.

103

See Adam J. Smith, Unauthorized Practice of Law and CPAs: A Law of the Lawyers, by the Lawyers, for the

Lawyers, 23 U. FLA. J.L. & PUB. POL’Y 373, 391 (December 2012).

104

See Chemerinsky, supra note 97.

105

285 U.S. 22, 46 (1932).

106

Commodity Futures Trading Com v. Schor, 478 U.S. 833, 855 (1986).

107

See Harold C. Pretowitz, Federal Court Reform: The Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982, 32 AM. U.L. REV.

543, 558 (Winter 1983) (“The major reason for this change was to enable the Claims Court to continue to handle

congressional reference cases.”).

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free to ignore the court’s recommendations.108 Because the Court of Claims’ report in a

congressional reference case cannot bind the parties presenting the case, the report is advisory in

nature and could not be issued by a constitutional court, which lacks the authority under Article

III to “give opinions upon ... abstract propositions, or to declare principles or rules of law which

cannot affect the matter in issue in the case before it.”109 As a consequence, the only means by

which Congress could have the Court of Claims adjudicate congressional references cases was to

reconstitute the court as a legislative tribunal.110 Likewise, Congress may wish to exert control

over or influence the work of a court, and by establishing an Article I tribunal, Congress can

establish a court housed with judges that lack life tenure and salary protections.111

Constitutional Basis for Legislative Courts

Again, while Article III would seem to require that every “case” or “controversy” must be

litigated in an Article III court, there appears to be historical, legal, and practical support for

Congress’s authority to create non-Article III tribunals and vest in them the authority to hear

matters that would otherwise fall within one of the heads of Article III jurisdiction (for instance,

cases “arising under” federal law).112

Non-Article III tribunals have been entrenched in federal adjudications for over 200 years and are

likely to remain. From very early on, Congress placed adjudicating authority in various nonArticle III forums that might have instead been vested in Article III courts.113 For instance, the

first Congress left it to the executive branch to resolve disputes concerning military pensions114

and federal customs laws,115 disputes that clearly arose under federal law and could have been

placed in constitutional courts. Likewise, in the early 18th century, the Supreme Court, led by

Chief Justice John Marshall, approved of the use of legislative courts in the territories

notwithstanding that the subject matter of the case—admiralty law—fell within Article III’s

“judicial power.”116

The leading legal rationale for the legitimacy of legislative courts is to treat them as an

“exception” to Article III’s requirement of tenure and salary protection. That is to say, in certain

instances when Congress is exercising its Article I authority, the need for life-tenured judges with

salary protection “must give way to accommodate plenary grants of power to Congress to

legislate with respect to specialized areas having particularized needs and warrant distinctive

treatment.”117 This theory finds strong support in Justice Brennan’s plurality opinion in Northern

Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co.118 In assessing whether creation of the

bankruptcy courts as legislative courts was consistent with Article III strictures, Justice Brennan

108

Id.; see generally 28 U.S.C. §2509.

Mills v. Green, 159 U.S. 651, 653 (1895).

110

See Pretowitz, supra note 107, at 558.

111

See Chemerinsky, supra note 97.

112

U.S. CONST. art. III, §2.

113

Fallon, supra note 77, at 919.

114

See Act of September 29, 1789, ch. 24, 1 Stat. 95.

115

See Act of September 1, 1789, ch. 11, 1 Stat. 55.

116

American Insurance Co. v. 356 Bales of Cotton (Canter), 26 U.S. (1 Pet.) 511 (1828).

117

Palmore v. United States, 411 U.S. 389, 408 (1973).

118

Northern Pipeline Constr. Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 458 U.S. 50 (1982).

109

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noted that there were three instances in which Congress has created legislative courts: territorial

courts, military courts, and courts that adjudicate public rights.119 Each of these recognized “a

circumstance in which the grant of power to the Legislative or Executive Branch was historically

and constitutionally so exceptional that the congressional assertion of a power to create legislative

courts was consistent with, rather than threatening to, the constitutional mandate of separation of

powers.”120 Adjuncts to federal courts, such as administrative agencies and magistrate judges, do

not necessarily rely on this “exceptions” rationale (although administrative agencies do adjudicate

many public rights cases). Rather, adjuncts are primarily justified by the direct oversight by

Article III courts.121

In addition to the historical and legal foundations for non-Article III courts, there are practical

reasons why all federal adjudications need not take place in Article III courts. One commentator

has noted, “Every time an official of the executive branch, in determining how faithfully to

execute the laws, goes through the process of finding facts and determining the meaning and

application of the relevant law, he is doing something which functionally is akin to the exercise of

judicial power.”122 In other words, in a certain light, every application of law to facts by a federal

executive branch official could be deemed a “judicial” act that should be litigated in an Article III

court. However, if every application of law to facts by an executive branch official—for instance,

each application of the tax code—required an Article III determination, the federal court system

would be rendered completely unworkable.

Constitutional Limitations on Non-Article III Courts

Distilling the somewhat Byzantine case law in this area, there appear to be four instances in

which non-Article III courts may be employed: (1) territorial courts, (2) military courts, (3) cases

involving “public rights,” and (4) adjuncts to federal courts. Additionally, in some instances,

litigant consent will permit a non-Article III court to hear certain matters.

Territorial Courts

Article IV, §3, cl. 2 provides Congress the power to “make all needful Rules and Regulations

respecting the territory or other Property belonging to the United States.”123 Under this authority,

Congress has set up a host of different courts in the territories. The Supreme Court’s first

opportunity to address the use of territorial courts came in the 1828 case Florida in American

Insurance Co. v. Canter.124 In Canter, the Court assessed the constitutionality of a court

established in the territory of Florida. Judges of these courts did not enjoy life tenure, but instead

sat for four-year terms.125 Challengers to the court’s jurisdiction argued that it could not properly

hear cases arising under admiralty law, which instead must be heard in Article III courts overseen

by life-tenured judges. Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for the Court, disagreed and

119

Northern Pipeline, 458 U.S. at 64-67.

Northern Pipeline, 458 U.S. at 64.

121

See “Adjunct Theory,” infra p. 20.

122

Bator, supra note 77, at 264.

123

U.S. CONST. art. IV, §3, cl. 2.

124

American Insurance Co. v. 356 Bales of Cotton (Canter), 26 U.S. (1 Pet.) 511 (1828).

125

Canter, 26 U.S. at 546.

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explained that such courts were “created in virtue of the general right of sovereignty which exists

in the government, or in virtue of that clause which enables Congress to make all needful rules

and regulations, respecting the territory belonging to the United States. The jurisdiction which

they are invested ... is conferred by Congress, in the execution of those general powers which that

body possesses over the territories of the United States.”126 In other words, when Congress

exercised its plenary authority over the territories under Article IV, it could place matters

normally left to Article III courts in an alternative judicial forum.127 Looking to more modern

examples, the district courts in the federal territories, including Guam,128 the Virgin Islands,129

and the Northern Mariana Islands,130 are all considered legislative courts.

A similar rationale of congressional authority has also applied in the context of courts in the

District of Columbia. Under Article I, §8, cl. 17 of the Constitution, Congress has the authority to

“exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever” over the District of Columbia.131 In an

early twentieth century ruling, the Supreme Court concluded that a federal law seeking to reduce

judicial salaries could not apply to the judges sitting on the Supreme Court of the District of

Columbia and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals as they were considered Article III

courts.132 At the time, these courts not only had jurisdiction over local matters in the District, but

also had jurisdiction over federal questions equivalent to that of other inferior federal courts. In

1970, Congress created a new Superior Court and Court of Appeals for the District “pursuant to

Article I of the Constitution.”133 These courts were limited to hearing purely local matters. In

Palmore v. United States, the defendant challenged the constitutionality of these courts, arguing

that he was entitled to a life-tenured judge since he was being prosecuted under federal law (the

District of Columbia criminal code).134 The Court rejected this argument, and observed that

“requirements of Art. III, which are applicable where law of national applicability and affairs of

national concern are at stake, must in proper circumstances give way to accommodate plenary

grants of power to Congress to legislate with respect to specialized areas having particularized

needs and warranting distinctive treatment.”135

Military Courts

The second major category of Article I courts are those employed in the military context. Under

Article I, §8, cl. 14, Congress has the authority “[t]o make Rules for the Government and

Regulation of the land and naval forces.” In the 1858 case Dynes v. Hoover, the Supreme Court

126

Id. at 546.

Chemerinsky, supra note 97, at §4.2. One rationale for the use of these non-Article III courts was the expediency of

not wanting to create an excess of life-tenured Article III judges that could not be put to use once the territory became a

state. See Glidden v. Zdanok, 370 U.S. 530, 546-47 (1962) (“It would have been doctrinaire in the extreme to deny the

right of Congress to invest judges of its creation with authority to dispose of the judicial business of the territories. It

would have been at least as dogmatic, having recognized the right, to fasten on those judges a guarantee of tenure that

Congress could not put to use and that the exigencies of the territories did not require.”).

128

48 U.S.C. §1424, 1424b.

129

48 U.S.C. §1611, 1614.

130

48 U.S.C. §1821.

131

U.S. CONST. art I., §8, cl. 17.

132

O’Donoghue v. United States, 289 U.S. 516, 551 (1933).

133

District of Columbia Court Reorganization Act of 1970, P.L. 91-358, 84 Stat. 473.

134

Palmore v. United States, 411 U.S. 389 (1973).

135

Id. at 408.

127

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upheld the use of this authority to create military courts.136 In that case, the Court observed that

“Congress has the power to provide for the trial and punishment of the military and naval

offences ... and that the power to do so is given without any connection between it and the 3d

article of the Constitution defining the judicial power of the United States; indeed, that the two

powers are entirely independent of each other.”137 Although Congress has broad authority to

create and implement military courts, the Supreme Court has set some substantive limits on their

jurisdiction. For instance, military courts cannot be used to try civilians138 nor the spouses of

military members.139 Additionally, military courts have jurisdiction over members of the military

only when they are still in service.140 However, military courts are able to hear non-service related

crimes while the defendant is still in the service.141Currently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the

Armed Forces (CAAF), an Article I court, sits at the apex of the military justice system.142 Judges

of the CAAF sit for 15-year terms and can be removed by the President for neglect of duty,

misconduct, or mental or physical disability.143

Public Rights

The third category of cases that can be resolved in an Article I court are “public rights” cases—

those that arise between a private actor and the government. This public rights theory can be

traced back to the Court’s ruling in Murray’s Lessee v. Hoboken Land & Improvement Co. in

which Justice Story explained that although Congress cannot withdraw from federal courts the

jurisdiction to hear suits at common law, equity, or admiralty, “there are matters, involving public

rights, which may be presented in such form that the judicial power is capable of acting on them,

and which are susceptible of judicial determination, but which Congress may or may not bring

within the cognizance of the courts of the United States, as it may deem proper.”144 At the core of

the public rights doctrine are cases involving claims or benefits against the government.145 The

U.S. Tax Court, for example, is an Article I court that resolves disputes between taxpayers and the

government.146 Although judges of the Tax Court exercise the “judicial power” of the United

States,147 its judges do not enjoy life tenure, but rather sit for 15-year terms.148 And unlike Article

136

Dynes v. Hoover, 61 U.S. (20 How.) 65, 79 (1857).

Id.

138

Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2, 121-22 (1867).

139

Reid v. Covert, 354 U.S. 1, 30 (1957) (“In light of this history, it seems clear that the Founders had no intention to

permit the trial of civilians in military courts, where they would be denied jury trials and other constitutional

protections, merely by giving Congress the power to make rules which were ‘necessary and proper’ for the regulation

of the ‘land and naval Forces.’”); see also Kinsella v. United States ex re. Singleton, 361 U.S. 234, 249 (1960).

140

United States ex rel. Toth v. Quarles, 350 U.S. 11, 14-15 (1955).

141

Solorio v. United States, 483 U.S. 435, 450-51 (1987).

142

10 U.S.C. §941.

143

Id. at 942(b)-(c). Another example of military courts are the military tribunals established by President Bush by

executive order shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens

in the War Against Terrorism, 66 Federal Register 57,833 (November 13, 2001).

144

Murray’s Lessee v. Hoboken Land & Improvement Co., 59 U.S. (18 How.) 272, 284 (1856).

145

Fallon, supra note 77, at 952.

146

26 U.S.C. §7441 (“There is hereby established, under article I of the Constitution of the United States, a court of

record to be known as the United States Tax Court.”).

147

See Freytag v. Commissioner, 501 U.S. 868, 890-91 (1991).

148

26 U.S.C. §7443(e).

137

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III judges who are subject to removal only through impeachment, Tax Court judges can be

removed by the President for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office[.]”149

The Court has offered several rationales for why public rights cases can be handled in Article I

courts. The first is based on the doctrine of sovereign immunity and the right of Congress to

attach conditions to the federal government being sued, including what type of forum the claim

can be brought in.150 The second major rationale is that historically these cases were conclusively

determined by the executive and legislative branches, “and that as a result there can be no

constitutional objection to Congress’ employing the less drastic expedient of committing their

determination to a legislative court or an administrative agency.”151

As a general matter, the Court has broadly defined public rights cases as those that arise “between

the Government and persons subject to its authority in connection with the performance of the

constitutional functions of the executive or legislative departments.”152 Private rights cases, on the

other hand, pertain to the “liability of one individual to another under the law as defined.”153

Beyond these general definitions, the Supreme Court has struggled to articulate the exact

parameters of the public rights doctrine. As Chief Justice Roberts has noted, “our discussion of

the public rights exception ... has not been entirely consistent, and the exception has been the

subject of some debate.”154 In a series of cases, the Court has endeavored to draw this line.

In the 1982 case Northern Pipeline Const. Co. v. Marathon Pipeline Co., the Court addressed

whether Article I bankruptcy courts could adjudicate common law contract and tort claims.155

Under Bankruptcy Act of 1978, bankruptcy judges were appointed to office for 14-year terms by

the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and subject to removal by the judicial

council in the circuit in which they presided.156 Acknowledging that the “distinction between

public and private rights has not been definitely explained” in the Court’s precedents, Justice

Brennan, writing for a plurality of the Court, traced the three historical exceptions to the literal

command of Article III: territorial courts, military courts, and courts and agencies that adjudicate

public rights. Disposing of the first two categories as clearly inapplicable, the plurality also

rejected the public rights argument as the underlying case did not arise between government and a

private party, but involved a state-created claim between two private parties.157

149

26 U.S.C. §7443(f).

Northern Pipeline, 458 U.S. at 67.

151

Ex Parte Bakelite, 279 U.S. 438, 451 (1929) (“The mode of determining [public rights cases] ... is completely within

congressional control. Congress may reserve to itself the power to decide, may delegate that power to executive

officers, or may commit it to judicial tribunals.”). Although Congress has generally employed some level of judicial

review for public rights cases, it is generally accepted that this is not constitutionally required. See Ex Parte Bakelite,

279 U.S. at 451; Northern Pipeline, 458 U.S. at 68 n.20; Crowell v. Benson, 285 U.S. 22, 50-51 (1932).

152

Crowell v. Benson, 285 U.S. 22, 50 (1932).

153

Id. at 51.

154

Stern v. Marshall, 131 S. Ct. 2594, 2611 (2011).

155

Northern Pipeline Constr. Co v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 458 U.S. 50 (1981).

156

28 U.S.C. §152, 153(a) (1976 ed., Supp. IV).

157

Alternatively, Justice Brennan addressed whether the bankruptcy courts could be treated as adjuncts to the federal

district courts. Northern Pipeline, 458 U.S at 76-77. He rejected the petitioner’s argument, however, that appellate

review by a federal court was sufficient to satisfy Article III, instead positing that “the constitutional requirements for

the exercise of the judicial power must be met at all stages of adjudication, and not only on appeal, where the court is

restricted to considerations of law, as well as the nature of the case as it has been shaped at the trial level.” Id. at 86

n.39.

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Several years later in Thomas v. Union Carbide Agricultural Products Co. the Court shifted from

the formalist approach of Northern Pipeline to a more functional approach for determining when

Congress may utilize non-Article III forums.158 The statute in question created a system of

binding arbitration for determining the amount of compensation due to pesticide manufacturers

whose data had been used by other manufacturers to register their products.159 The arbitrator’s

decision was subject to judicial review for “fraud, misrepresentation, or other misconduct.”160

Justice O’Connor, writing for the majority, rejected the strict public/private rights dichotomy

established in Justice Brennan’s Northern Pipeline opinion, instead asserting that “substance

rather than doctrinaire reliance on formal categories should inform application of Article III.”161

Instead of formal reliance on these strict categories, the Court instructed that the nature of the

right at issue and the concerns that drove Congress to create this alternative judicial forum should

guide the inquiry. Because the arbitration scheme was created by federal statute, was a “pragmatic

solution to the difficult problem of spreading [] costs,” and did not “preclude review of the

arbitration proceeding by an Article III court,” the Court found that it “did not threaten the

independent role the Judiciary in our constitutional scheme.” This decision is notable as it broke

away from the strict public rights category from Northern Pipeline and permitted a private right

to be adjudicated in a non-Article III forum so long as the private right is “so closely integrated

into a public regulatory scheme as to be a matter appropriate for agency resolution with limited

involvement by Article III judiciary.”162 Two years later in Commodity Futures Trading

Commission v. Schor, the Court reaffirmed Thomas’ functional approach and held that the

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was empowered to hear common law

counterclaims related to a violation of the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA) or CFTC

regulations.163

In the most recent foray into Article I courts, Stern v. Marshall, the Court shifted away from the

functionalism of Thomas and Schor and back towards the formalism of Northern Pipeline.164 In

Stern, the issue was whether a bankruptcy court could adjudicate a common law claim for

fraudulent interference with a gift. In a 5-4 decision authored by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court

held that Article III prohibited the bankruptcy court’s exercise of jurisdiction because it did not

fall under the public rights exception.165 The Court acknowledged that Thomas and Schor had

rejected the limitation of the public rights exception to actions involving the government as a

party, but that the Court has continued to limit the exception to claims deriving from a “federal

regulatory scheme” or in which “an expert government agency is deemed essential to a limited

regulatory objective.”166 In rejecting the application of the public rights exception to the

158

Thomas v. Union Carbide Agricultural Products Co., 473 U.S. 568 (1984).

Id. at 568.

160

Id. at 573-74.

161

Id. at 587.

162

Id. at 593-94.

163

Commodity Futures Trading Comm’n v. Schor, 478 U.S. 833, 857 (1986). In Schor, the Court described several

non-determinative factors for assessing whether the adjudication of traditional Article III cases in a non-Article III

forum threatens the institutional integrity of the judicial branch: (1) “extent to which the ‘essential attributes of judicial

power’ are reserved to Article III courts, and, conversely, the extent to which the non-Article III forum exercises the

range of jurisdiction and powers normally vested only in Article III courts,” (2) “the origins and importance of the right

to be adjudicated”; and (3) “the concerns that drove Congress to depart from the requirements of Article III.” Id. at 851.

164

Stern v. Marshall, 131 S. Ct. 2594 (2010).

165

Id. at 2611.

166

Id. at 2612.

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fraudulent interference counterclaim, the Court observed that her claim was not one that could be

“pursued only by grace of the other branches” or could have been “determined exclusively” by

the executive or legislative branches.167 Additionally, the underlying claim did not “flow from a

federal regulatory scheme” and was not limited to a “particularized area of law.”168 Because the

counterclaim involved the “most prototypical exercise of judicial power,” adjudication of a

common law cause of action not created by federal law, the Court rejected the bankruptcy courts’

exercise of jurisdiction over the counterclaim as a breach of Article III.169

Adjunct Theory

In addition to the three categories of legislative courts—territorial, military, and public rights—

the use of “adjuncts” is another prominent theory that supports the use of non-Article III courts to

adjudicate federal questions. An “adjunct” is an adjudicator—most often an administrative agency

or a magistrate judge—that does not function as an independent court, but instead acts as a

subordinate to the federal courts. Adjuncts have become highly important in the modern era, as

they not only handle many cases involving public benefits, but also assist Article III judges with

their heavy caseload.

Support for the adjunct theory can be traced back to the 1932 case Crowell v. Benson.170 In

Crowell, the plaintiff brought a claim against his employer under the Longshoreman’s and Harbor

Workers’ Compensation Act for injuries allegedly sustained while working on the navigable

waters of the United States.171 The act required that all such claims be filed with the U.S.

Employees’ Compensation Commission. The agency was to determine “questions of fact as to the

circumstances, nature, extent, and consequences of the injuries sustained by the employee.”172

After the commission awarded the plaintiff damages, the employer appealed this decision,

claiming that grant of jurisdiction to the commission violated Article III. In upholding the act, the

Supreme Court delineated the proper role of the use of adjuncts in relation to Article III courts.

The Court observed that “there is no requirement that, in order to maintain the essential attributes

of the judicial power, all determinations of fact in constitutional courts shall be made by

judges.”173 Instead, an adjunct may make findings of fact and initial legal determinations, but

questions of law must be subject to de novo review in an Article III court.174 Questions of

jurisdictional fact—that is, facts that pertain to the jurisdiction of the agency itself—and

constitutional fact are also subject to a more searching review by a constitutional court.175 In sum,

assuming one of the three historical exceptions is not applicable, Crowell instructs that for Article

III courts to retain the “essential attributes of the judicial power,” adjuncts must act as

subordinates to the Article III courts and not as independent adjudicators.

167

Id. at 2613-14.

Id. at 2614.

169

Id.

170

Crowell v. Benson, 285 U.S. 22 (1932).

171

Id. at 36-37.

172

Id. at 54.

173

Id. at 51.

174

Id. at 51.

175

Id. at 54-57.

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Administrative Agencies

The framework established in Crowell provided the blueprint for the modern administrative state,

starting with the New Deal and expanding throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.176 These

agencies perform a host of various functions including making policy, promulgating rules, and

adjudicating questions arising under federal law.177 Many of the disputes coming before federal

agencies concern public rights cases, with a large share of cases concerning the right to various

government entitlements. For instance, the Social Security Administration, a federal agency who

administers various government benefits including old-age and disability benefits, has a complex

adjudication process for determining who is entitled to these benefits, including several tiers of

administrative review and review by both a federal district court and a circuit court of appeal.178

The form of judicial review of SSA decisions closely follows the Crowell model. For example,

while factual findings made by an administrative law judge are subject to the highly deferential

“substantial evidence” standard,179 legal determinations “receive no deference” from either the

district court or court of appeals.180 And while administrative law judges do not receive

constitutionally protected life tenure or salary protection, there are statutory protections regarding

their appointment, tenure, and compensation.

Magistrate Judges

The second major subcategory of adjuncts is the federal magistrate judge. In 1968, Congress

abolished the U.S. commissioner system as part of the Federal Magistrates Act,181 and sought to

“reform the first echelon of the Federal judiciary into an effective component of a modern scheme

of justice by establishing a system of U.S. magistrates.”182 Initially the magistrate judges were

assigned a somewhat circumscribed role, but over the last several decades, Congress has

expanded the role of magistrate judges to include the power to decide various motions, hear

evidence, and try both criminal and civil cases. With the ever burgeoning federal docket,

magistrate judges have been deemed “nothing less than indispensable” in the federal judicial

process.183 However useful they may be, there appears to be some conflict in vesting authority to

resolve federal questions in judicial officials not cloaked with life tenure and salary protections.

176

Fallon, supra note 77, at 925.

Bator, supra note 84, at 238.

178

42 U.S.C. §405(g) (“Any individual, after any final decision of the Commissioner of Social Security made after a

hearing to which he was a party ... may obtain a review of such decision by a civil action ... brought in [a] district court

of the United States. ... The judgment of the court shall be final except that it shall be subject to review in the same

manner as a judgment in other civil actions.”); 28 U.S.C. §1291 (“The courts of appeals ... shall have jurisdiction of

appeals from all final decisions of the district courts of the United States.... ”).

179

42 U.S.C. §405(g) (“The findings of the Commissioner of Social Security as to any fact, if supported by substantial

evidence, shall be conclusive.... ”); Jesurum v. Secretary of U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 48 F.3d 114, 117

(3d Cir. 1995) (“When reviewing the Secretary’s denial of disability benefits, we are limited to determining whether

the Secretary’s denial is supported by substantial evidence. Substantial evidence is such relevant evidence as a

reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. It is less than a preponderance of the evidence but

more than a mere scintilla.”) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

180

Hickman v. Bowman, 803 F.2d 1377, 1380 (5th Cir. 1986); Foster v. Astrue, 548 F. Supp. 2d 667, 668 (E.D. Wis.

2008) (“Conclusions of law are entitled to no deference, so if the ALJ commits legal error reversal is required without

regard to the volume of evidence in support of the factual findings.”).

181

Federal Magistrates Act, P.L. 90-578, 82 Stat. 1107.

182

See Mathews v. Weber, 423 U.S. 261, 266 (quoting S. Rpt. 371, 90th Cong., 1st Sess., 8 (1967)).

183

Government of Virgin Islands v. Williams, 892 F.2d 305, 308 (3d Cir. 1989).

177

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Instead, magistrate judges are selected by district court judges and can be removed for good cause

or if the Judicial Conference “determines that the services performed by his office are no longer

needed.”184

The Supreme Court’s first encounter with the first Magistrates Act came about in Wingo v.

Wedding.185 In that case, the Court addressed whether the act permitted magistrate judges to hold

evidentiary hearings in habeas corpus proceedings without the defendant’s consent or whether

district court judges were required to do so personally. The Court, speaking through Justice

Brennan, parsed the statute in a way to avoid potential Article III problems. The High Court did

this by construing the term “additional duties” in the act to not include the authority of a

magistrate to hold evidentiary hearings, but instead allowing the magistrate simply to propose to

the district court judge whether such a hearing should be held.186 Two years later in Mathews v.

Weber, the Court was tasked with interpreting whether “additional duties” could be read to permit

referral of Social Security benefit cases to a magistrate judges for preliminary review of the

administrative record and preparation of a recommended ruling.187 While the Court again avoided

the potential Article III issues,188 it echoed the adjunct theory by observing that a district judge is

free to follow or wholly reject a magistrate’s recommendation and that the “authority—and the

responsibility—to make informed, final determination ... remains with the judge.”189 As a

statutory matter, because the district judge was still free to follow or wholly ignore the

magistrate’s recommendation, the Court upheld the magistrate’s “preliminary-review function” as

one of the “additional duties” permitted under the act.190

In the 1980 case United States v. Raddatz, the Court finally addressed head-on the constitutional

issues surrounding that Magistrates Act that were left unresolved in previous cases. In Raddatz,

the defendant challenged both the magistrates’ statutory and constitutional authority to hear

motions to suppress evidence in a criminal proceeding.191 Under the act, magistrate judges could

“hear and determine” any pretrial matter before it, except for any certain dispositive motions,

including motions to suppress evidence in criminal cases.192 For these dispositive motions, the

district court judge could “designate a magistrate to conduct hearings, including evidentiary

hearings, and to submit to a judge of the court proposed findings of fact and recommendations for

the disposition.... ”193 If the proposed findings or recommendations were objected to by either

party, the district court judge was then required to make a “de novo determination” of the raised

issues and could “accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations

of the magistrate.”194 The defendant in Raddatz contended that these provisions required the

district court judge to rehear the testimony on which the magistrate based his findings. In an

opinion by Chief Justice Burger, the Court rejected this argument, holding that the district court

184

28 U.S.C. §631.

Wingo v. Wedding, 418 U.S. at 469

186

Id. at 472.

187

Mathews v. Weber, 423 U.S. 261, 271 (1975).

188

The Court noted that the defendant “decline[d] to rely on any constitutional argument.” Id. at 269 n.5.

189

Id. at 271.

190

Id. at 271-72.

191

United States v. Raddatz, 447 U.S. 667 (1980).

192

See 28 U.S.C. §636(b)(1)(A) (1982 ed).

193

§636(b)(1)(B).

194

Id.

185

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need only make a de novo determination of the disputed findings and recommendations and not

hold a de novo hearing on the issues raised.195 In the face of the Article III challenge, the Court

upheld the act observing that the “ultimate decision” is reserved for the district court judge and

that magistrates “are constantly subject to the court’s control.”196

Congress amended the act in 1979, further enlarging and clarifying the magistrates’ authority.197

Under the new statute, upon designation by the district court judge and with consent of the

parties, magistrate judges were authorized to preside over and enter final judgments in civil trials,

including jury trials198 and misdemeanor criminal prosecutions.199

In Gomez v. United States, the Court addressed whether overseeing the selection of jurors in a

felony criminal prosecution was among the “additional duties” envisioned in the act.200 The

defendant in that case objected to the assignment both the before and after the magistrate judge

selected the jury.201 In a unanimous decision, the Court agreed, and held that the Magistrates Act

did not permit such an assignment. Adhering to the rule of avoiding “an interpretation of a federal

statute that engenders constitutional issues if a reasonable alternative interpretation poses no

constitutional question,” the Court focused on the statutory question of whether Congress would

have intended magistrates to oversee this “critical stage of the criminal proceeding.”202 By

focusing on the importance of the selection of a jury, “the primary means by which a court may

enforce a defendant’s right to be tried by a jury free from ethnic, racial, and political prejudice,”

the Court was able to avoid the lingering Article III question whether judicial officials without

life tenure and salary protection can preside over an essential part of a federal criminal

prosecution.203 Speaking for a unanimous Court, Justice Stevens noted that while a literal reading

of the additional duties provision would allow magistrates to oversee felony trials, the “carefully

defined grant of authority to conduct trials of civil matters and of minor criminal cases should be

construed as an implicit withholding of the authority to preside at a felony trial.”204 Ultimately,

the Court held that the “absence of a specific reference to jury selection in the statute, or, indeed,

in the legislative history, persuades us that Congress did not intend the additional duties clause to

embrace this function.”205 Importantly, in Gomez, the defendant had not given consent to the

magistrate to select the jury, illustrating the limits of the adjunct theory when consent is withheld.

Role of Consent

Even if a particular proceeding before a legislative court involves a claim traditionally tried by an

Article III court,206 such a proceeding may be able to occur within the bounds of the Constitution

195

Raddatz, 447 U.S. at 676.

Id. at 682-83.

197

Federal Magistrate Act of 1979, P.L. 96-82, 93 Stat. 643.

198

93 Stat. 643-44.

199

93 Stat. 645-46.

200

Gomez v. United States, 490 U.S. 858 (1989).

201

Id. at 860-61.

202

Id. at 873.

203

Id.

204

Id. at 872.

205

Id. at 875-76.

206

Cf. Stern v. Marshall, 131 S. Ct. 2594, 2609 (2011) (holding that “[w]hen a suit is made of ‘the stuff of the

(continued...)

196

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if the parties to the proceeding consent to such an adjudication. Before discussing the role of

consent and the constitutionality of non-Article III tribunals, it is important to note, as a statutory

matter, Congress has from time to time allowed non-Article III courts to adjudicate based on

consent. For example, under the Federal Magistrates Act, upon the consent of the parties, a

magistrate judge “may conduct any or all proceedings in a jury or nonjury civil matter and order

the entry of judgment in the case.... ”207 Moreover, pursuant to the Bankruptcy Amendments and

Federal Judgeship Act of 1984, a district court, with the “consent of all parties to the proceeding,”

is permitted to refer a “proceeding related to a case under title 11 to a bankruptcy judge to hear

and determine and to enter appropriate orders and judgments.... ”208 Other federal laws may

provide for arbitration over discrete legal issues to occur based on the consent of the parties

involved.209 In short, some federal statutes have allowed parties to consent to have discrete

matters adjudicated before a non-Article III tribunal.

While a non-Article III tribunal may be statutorily authorized to adjudicate a matter based on the

consent of the parties, a question still remains as to whether the Constitution provides for such an

arrangement. To understand the constitutional limits with respect to consent and non-Article III

tribunals, it is important to understand the nature of the interests protected by Article III, §1, the

constitutional provision that restricts Congress’s ability to constitute legislative courts.210 The

Supreme Court has identified two separate rationales for the constitutional limitations on the

creation of non-Article III tribunals. First, the Court has noted that Article III, §1, provides a right

that is personal in nature to individual litigants, preserving “their interest in an impartial and

independent federal adjudication of claims with the judicial power of the United States.”211

Second, in addition to the “individual rights” component of Article III, §1, the Court has held that

that provision also safeguards certain structural principles, as well. Specifically, Article III

preserves the “role of the Judicial Branch” in our system of government by preventing Congress

from transferring jurisdiction to non-Article III tribunals en-masse, which could risk

“‘emasculating’ constitutional courts.”212 Put another way, Article III, §1 prohibits Congress from

undermining Article III courts by enacting legislation that reassigns traditional federal judicial

business to legislative judges that do not have life tenure and guaranteed compensation and,

therefore, are presumably less independent.213

(...continued)

traditional actions at common law tried by the courts at Westminster in 1789’ ... the responsibility for deciding that suit

rests with Article III judges in Article III courts. The Constitution assigns that job ... to the Judiciary.”) (internal

citations omitted).

207

See 28 U.S.C. §636(c)(1).

208

See 28 U.S.C. §157(c)(2).

209

See, e.g., 42 U.S.C. §4083(a) (allowing for arbitration of claims or disputes arising as a result of the National Flood

Insurance Program based on the “consent of the parties concerned.”).

210

See supra “Constitutional Limitations on Non-Article III Courts.”

211

See Commodities Future Trading Comm’n v. Schor, 478 U.S. 833, 850 (1986).

212

Id.(quoting National Insurance Co. v. Tidewater Co., 337 U.S. 582, 644 (1949) (Vinson, C.J., dissenting)).

213

See Northern Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Company, 458 U.S. 50, 58-60 (1982) (plurality

opinion). The fact that the structural component of Article III is primarily focused on preserving the role of federal

courts as an independent branch does not mean, however, that such structural interests fail to implicate individual

rights. See Bond v. United States, 131 S. Ct. 2355, 2365 (2011) (“Separation-of-powers principles are intended, in part,

to protect each branch of government from incursion by the others. Yet the dynamic between and among the branches

is not the only object of the Constitution’s concern. The structural principles secured by the separation of powers

protect the individual as well.”).

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Having individuals consent to the jurisdiction of a non-Article III tribunal effectively undermines

only one of the two rationales for why Article III can bar litigation of certain claims before

legislative courts—the individual rights rationale. Generally, individual rights that are protected

by the Constitution can be waived214 through a voluntary, knowing, and intelligent act “done with

sufficient awareness of the relevant circumstances and likely consequences.”215 For example,

while the Fifth Amendment protects a criminal defendant’s right against self-incrimination during

custodial interrogation,216 the defendant can waive that right by voluntarily answering questions

without claiming a right to keep silent or by executing a written waiver of his rights.217 Likewise,

with respect to individual rights protected under Article III, §1, a party can agree to adjudication

before a legislative court and effectively waive his individual interest in having an Article III

court adjudicate his claim.218

Nonetheless, while individual rights can be waived, “notions of consent and waiver cannot be

dispositive” with respect to the structural protections provided by Article III, §1 “because [those]

limitations serve institutional interests that the parties cannot be expected to protect”219—namely,

separation of powers principles protecting the judicial branch from encroachment by the political

branches.220 Indeed, the Supreme Court has likened the structural protections provided by Article

III, §1 to the limits on the subject-matter jurisdiction of a federal court imposed by Section 2 of

Article III, which cannot be waived through consent.221 Instead, the Supreme Court, when

examining the structural component of Article III protections in consent cases, has assessed the

constitutionality of a given judicial scheme using ad hoc balancing tests that rely on seemingly

disparate principles, leaving an open question as to when Congress can provide an alternative

forum to an Article III court in which consenting parties can assert their grievances.222

For example, in Commodities Futures Trading Commission v. Schor, the Supreme Court, in

assessing the structural component of the constitutional protections provided by Article III, §1,

rested its decision primarily based on the breadth of matters adjudicated by the non-Article III

tribunal at issue in that case. Specifically, the Court upheld a law that allowed the Commodities

Futures Trading Commission to adjudicate common law claims that were (1) “incidental to” and

“completely dependent upon adjudication by the Commission of [public rights] claims created by

federal law” and (2) arose “out of the same transaction or occurrence” as the federal law claim.223

For the Court, allowing an administrative agency to adjudicate such a “narrow class of common

law claims,”224 amounted to an intrusion on the judicial branch that could “only be termed de

minimis.”225 Nonetheless, the Schor Court, in noting the narrow nature of its holding, emphasized

214

See Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464 (1938) (defining waiver as an “intentional relinquishment or abandonment

of a known right or privilege.”)

215

Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 748 (1970).

216

See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 471 (1966).

217

See Paterson v. Illinois, 487 U.S. 285, 292 (1988).

218

See Schor, 478 U.S. at 849-50; see also Peretz v. United States, 501 U.S. 923, 936 (1991).

219

See Schor, 478 U.S. at 851.

220

See Stern, 131 S. Ct. at 2608-09.

221

See Schor, 478 U.S. at 850-51.

222

See id. at 848-49; see also Peretz v. United States, 501 U.S. at 930.

223

See Schor, 478 U.S. at 856.

224

Id.at 854.

225

Id. at 856.

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that Congress could not “create[] a phalanx of non-Article III tribunals equipped to handle the

entire business of the Article III courts without any Article III supervision or control and without

evidence of valid and specific legislative necessities,” even if parties consented to adjudicate

before such a forum.226

Five years later, the Court approached the issue regarding Article III’s structural protections in a

slightly different manner in another consent case, Peretz v. United States.227 In Peretz, a criminal

defendant who had failed to demand the presence of an Article III judge during the selection of

his jury challenged, relying on the constitutional underpinnings of Gomez,228 argued that having a

magistrate judge oversee voir dire proceedings implicated the structural protections provided by

Article III.229 As in Schor, the Court in Peretz rejected that a judicial scheme affording to a

legislative court certain responsibilities traditionally exercised by a constitutional court ran

counter to the institutional interests preserved by Article III.230 Nonetheless, unlike in Schor,

where the Court focused on the narrow nature of the claims adjudicated by administrative agency

in that case, the Court’s reasoning in Peretz centered on the degree of control exercised by a

constitutional court over the non-Article III court’s work. In Peretz, the Court observed that

(1) magistrate judges are “appointed and subject to removal” by Article III judges; and (2) the

“‘ultimate decision’ whether to invoke the magistrate’s assistance,” including assistance with voir

dire, is made by the district court.231 Based on these observations, the Court concluded that

“[b]ecause ‘the entire process takes place under the district court’s total control and jurisdiction,’

there is no danger that use of the magistrate involves a ‘congressional attempt’” to undermine the

power of constitutional courts.232

Given the different approaches of Schor and Peretz with respect to how to evaluate the threat

posed by consent cases to the structural protections afforded by Article III, lower court judges

have—perhaps predictably—struggled to ascertain the constitutional limits of allowing

consenting parties to seek traditional judicial relief from non-Article III tribunals. For example, in

1984 a divided panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of a

provision of the Federal Magistrates Act of 1979 that allowed magistrates with the consent of the

parties to try any civil case and to enter judgment with respect to them.233 In so holding, the

appellate court reasoned that the “magistrates continue to function as adjuncts of the district

courts” in such cases because magistrates are appointed and removed by district judges and the

magistrate’s conclusions of law are subject to de novo review by an Article III Court.234 Judge

Richard Posner dissented from the decision, arguing that the power to enter final judgments is

vested in Article III courts and cannot be delegated to judges who lack the protections afforded by

Article III.235 The remaining circuit courts have agreed with the Seventh Circuit’s assessment on

226

Id. at 855.

501 U.S. 923.

228

See supra “Magistrate Judges,” at 23 (discussing Gomez v. United States, 490 U.S. 858 (1989)).

229

501 U.S. at 937. In contrast to Gomez, in Peretz, the criminal defendant’s failure to demand an Article III judge

during voir dire effectively waived the ability of the defendant to argue that the individual rights component of Article

III’s protections were implicated. See Peretz, 501 U.S. at 930.

230

Id.

231

Id.

232

Id.

233

Geras v. Lafayette Display Fixtures, Inc., 742 F.2d 1037, 1045 (7th Cir. 1984).

234

Id.

235

Id. at 1048 (Posner, J., dissenting).

227

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the constitutionality of allowing consenting parties to proceed before a magistrate,236 including

the Ninth Circuit in a decision written by then-Judge Anthony Kennedy.237

In the wake of Stern and the Court’s condemnation of the “broad substantive jurisdiction”

afforded to the bankruptcy court to enter final and binding judgments, questions about the

constitutionality of allowing consenting parties to proceed before a non-Article III court have

been renewed.238 Specifically, the federal appellate courts divided on the question of whether

consenting parties could have claims similar to those adjudicated in Stern (Stern claims) proceed

before a bankruptcy court.239 To resolve the split amongst the lower courts, the Supreme Court, in

July of 2014, granted certiorari in Wellness International v. Sharif.240 In May of 2015, the Court,

in a 6-3 ruling, held that Article III permits bankruptcy courts to adjudicate with finality Stern

claims241 if the parties have provided knowing and voluntary consent.242

In so holding, the Court in Wellness International relied heavily upon a functionalist approach to

the underlying constitutional question similar to Schor and Peretz.243 Specifically, the Court

utilized the ad hoc balancing test from Schor and Peretz to conclude that allowing bankruptcy

courts to decide Stern claims by consent would not “impermissibly threaten the institutional

integrity of the Judicial Branch.”244 Just as in Schor, in Wellness International the Court relied on

the fact that the underlying class of claims that was being adjudicated by the non-Article III court

was “narrow” in nature, resulting in a “de minimis” intrusion on the federal judiciary.245

Moreover, much like in Peretz, the Wellness International Court found instructive the fact that the

legislative court in question was ultimately supervised and overseen by a constitutional court and

236

See Goldstein v. Kelleher,728 F.2d 32, 36 (1st Cir. 1984); Collins v. Foreman, 729 F.2d 108, 115-16 (2d Cir. 1984);

Wharton-Thomas v. United States, 721 F.2d 922, 929-30 (3rd Cir. 1983); Gairola v. Virginia Dep’t of Gen. Servs., 753

F.2d 1281, 1285 (4th Cir. 1985); Puryear v. Ede’s Ltd., 731 F.2d 1153, 1154 (5th Cir. 1984); Bell & Beckwith v. United

States, 766 F.2d 910, 912 (6th Cir. 1985); Lehman Bros. Kuhn Loeb, Inc. v. Clark Oil & Refining Corp., 739 F.2d 1313,

1316 (8th Cir. 1984); United States v. Dobey, 751 F.2d 1140, 1143 (10th Cir. 1985); Sinclair v. Wainwright, 814 F.2d

1516, 1519 (11th Cir. 1987); Fields v. Washington Metro. Area Transit Auth., 743 F.2d 890, 893 (D.C. Cir. 1984); D.L.

Auld Co. v. Groma Graphics Co., 753 F.2d 1029, 1032 (Fed. Cir. 1985).

237

Pacemaker Diagnostic Clinic, Inc. v. Instromedix, Inc., 725 F.2d 537, 540 (9th Cir. 1984) (en banc) (Kennedy, J.).

238

131 S. Ct. at 2615

239

Compare In re Bellingham Insurance Agency, Inc., 702 F.3d 553, 566-70 (9th Cir. 2012), with Wellness Int’l

Network, Ltd v. Sharif, 727 F.3d 751, 771 (7th Cir. 2013).

240

See Wellness Int’l Network, Ltd. v. Sharif, No. 13-935, 83 U.S.L.W. 3011 (July 1, 2014).

241

In Wellness International, the majority opinion, written by Justice Sotomayor, “expresse[d] no view on” whether the

underlying claim in the case, an alter-ego conveyance claim, was truly a Stern claim and fell outside of the public rights

doctrine. See Wellness Int'l Network, Ltd. v. Sharif, No. 13-935, 2015 WL 2456619, at *3, n.7 (May 26, 2015). The

principal dissent, written by Chief Justice Roberts, argued that the alter ego claim in Wellness International was not a

Stern claim because the claim did not implicate the interests of third parties (and instead was merely part and parcel of

the process at the heart of any bankruptcy proceeding – dividing up the property of the estate, Wellness Int'l Network,

Ltd. v. Sharif, No. 13-935, 2015 WL 2456619, at *16 (May 26, 2015) (Roberts, C.J., dissenting). As a consequence,

Chief Justice Roberts, along with Justices Scalia and Thomas, would have held that the underlying claim in Wellness

International fell “within the narrow historical exception that permits a non-Article III adjudicator in certain

bankruptcy proceedings,” avoiding the central question regarding consent that was at the heart of the majority opinion.

Id. at *16.

242

Wellness Int'l Network, Ltd. v. Sharif, No. 13-935, 2015 WL 2456619, at *3 (May 26, 2015).

243

Id. at *8 (discussing the “lesson[s]” of Schor and Peretz).

244

Id. at *9 (internal citations omitted).

245

Id.. With respect to the bankruptcy courts and Stern claims, the Court found that the class of claims was narrow

because the claims were necessarily incident to a bankruptcy proceeding. Id.

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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview

not Congress.246 Finally, the Court, relying on language in both Schor and Peretz, found “no

indication” that Congress, in allowing bankruptcy courts to decide with finality Stern claims, was

acting in “an effort to aggrandize itself or humble the Judiciary.”247 Weighing all of these factors

together, the Wellness International Court concluded that allowing bankruptcy courts to

adjudicate Stern claims with the express or implied248 consent of the parties “pose[d] no threat to

the separation of powers.”249

Following Wellness International, it appears that legislation that affords a relatively narrow class

of claims to be adjudicated before a non-Article III tribunal with the parties’ consent and provides

Article III courts with some oversight of the legislative court’s activities would arguably pass

constitutional muster. However, many issues remain open to dispute following the Court’s most

recent Article III consent case. For example, the Court’s opinion in Wellness International

declined to outline any precise limits to adjudication by litigant consent, including the breadth of

claims that Congress may allow a non-Article III court to adjudicate with the consent of the

parties and the scope of the needed oversight a constitutional court must possess over a legislative

court that is ruling on claims traditionally heard by an Article III court. Nonetheless, the Wellness

International Court signals that after a brief retreat in Stern from more pragmatic and flexible

opinions like Thomas, Schor, and Peretz, the Court’s separation of powers jurisprudence with

regard to Article I courts has returned to a more functionalist approach.

Author Contact Information

(name redacted)

Legislative Attorney

[redacted]@crs.loc.gov, 7-....

(name redacted)

Legislative Attorney

[redacted]@crs.loc.gov, 7-....

246

Id. With respect to bankruptcy courts and Stern claims, the Court noted that (1) the bankruptcy court’s ability to hear

Stern claims was dependent on a reference by the district court; and (2) the district court can withdraw the reference of

the Stern claims sua sponte or upon the request of the parties. Id.

247

Id. at *10.

248

In a separate portion of the decision, the Court rejected the argument that any consent to the jurisdiction of a nonArticle III court with respect to Stern claims needed to be express. Id. at *12 (“Nothing in the Constitution requires that

consent to adjudication by a bankruptcy court be express.”).

249

Id.

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