Once More, with Feeling

Chief Justice Warren Burger began his speech with an analogy to "the early pioneer who, looking out the window of his log cabin, saw a pack of wolves." The pioneer, said Burger, could cry "Wolf!" without apology, and so too, argued the Chief, can the overburdened U.S. Supreme Court. During the past 30 years, the number of cases on the high court's annual docket has nearly quadrupled, from 1,463 to 5,311, by Burger's count, and the total of signed court opinions has jumped from 65 to 141. Warned Burger: "It is perhaps the most important single, immediate problem facing the Judicial Branch." Only fundamental changes will "avoid a breakdown of the system--or of some of the Justices."

The nodding in the audience at the American Bar Association meeting last week signaled not only widespread sympathy but weary familiarity. Ever since he became Chief Justice nearly 14 years ago, Burger has been arguing that the high bench is overworked, and only hours before, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor had become the sixth court member publicly to sound an alarm.

This time around, Burger seems ready to push harder. For the first time he urged a specific solution: that Congress create, on an experimental basis, a new tribunal just below the Supreme Court to handle cases that would resolve conflicting rulings among any of the 13 U.S. appeals courts. Perhaps one-third of the cases heard by the high court fall into that category. The proposed court would have rotating seven-or nine-judge panels drawn from a pool of 26 appeals court judges. It would expire after five years, though if the review court proved a success, Congress could make it permanent. Moreover, before he spoke, Burger had done some lobbying of his own. He consulted with Democratic Senator Howell Heflin of Alabama, a former chief justice of his state's supreme court; two weeks ago Heflin reintroduced legislation that would authorize the kind of court that Burger wants and that would also create a commission to look into problems facing the nation's courts. Despite last week's stirring, however, it remains to be seen whether, unlike the fable, crying wolf long enough will bring help. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.