Legislative Court

Legislative Court in the United States

A court created by Congress under authority conveyed by Article I of the United States Constitution. A legislative court will function as a court, but it is also designed to perform functions not exclusively judicial in character. These courts are created by Congress in exercise of its powers found in the legislative article of the Constitution (Article I) to “constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court.” Legislative courts are usually established to fulfill particular administrative functions in addition to, or as part of, their assigned judicial responsibilities. Legislative courts include the United States Claims Court, the United States Tax Court, and the United States Court of Military Appeals. In addition, the Territorial Courts in, for example, Guam were created by Congress to exercise federal jurisdiction as well as to handle matters that normally appear in state courts. These Territorial Courts were established from powers conveyed to Congress in Article I to govern territories. Legislative courts are distinct from constitutional courts, which are created from power granted to Congress under Article III, the judicial article.

See Also

Advisory Opinion (Judicial Organization) Constitutional Court (Judicial Organization).

Analysis and Relevance

The creation of legislative courts accomplishes two objectives. First, these courts have highly focused jurisdiction and add a dimension of specialization to the federal Judiciary (U.S.). Second, legislative courts create flexibility in the federal system and relieve the workload of other federal courts, especially the district courts. Unlike constitutional courts, legislative courts may render advisory opinions, which are rulings on legal issues without the presence of a real case. Judges of legislative courts also differ from constitutional court judges in that they do not possess the tenure safeguards enjoyed by Article III judges. While not required to do so, Congress may convey life tenure to legislative court judges. While such protection has been extended to most legislative court judges, Territorial Court (U.S.) judges serve limited terms. There are limits to congressional authority to establish legislative courts. In 1982, for example, Congress attempted to create a bankruptcy court as a legislative court. The Supreme Court invalidated the proposal in Northern Pipeline Construction Company v. Marathon Pipeline Company (450 U.S. 50: 1982), ruling that the nature of the new court’s functions required Article III constitutional status.

Notes and References

  1. Definition of Legislative Court from the American Law Dictionary, 1991, California

Legislative Court in the United States

Legislative Court

United States Constitution

According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled LEGISLATIVE COURTThe term “legislative court” was coined by Chief Justice john marshall to describe the status of courts created by Congress to serve United States territories lying outside the boundaries of any state. Congress had not given the judges of the territorial courts the life tenure and
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