Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts:
A Legal Overview
Andrew Nolan
Legislative Attorney
Richard M. Thompson II
Legislative Attorney
October 1, 2014
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
R43746
Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview
Summary
The United States Constitution established only one federal court—the United States 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 United States 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? .............................................................................................. 13
Constitutional Basis for Legislative Courts ............................................................................. 14
Constitutional Limitations on Non-Article III Courts ............................................................. 15
Territorial Courts ............................................................................................................... 15
Military Courts .................................................................................................................. 17
Public Rights ..................................................................................................................... 17
Adjunct Theory ................................................................................................................. 20
Role of Consent ................................................................................................................. 24
Tables
Table 1. Current Article III Courts ................................................................................................... 9
Contacts
Author Contact Information........................................................................................................... 28
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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview
Introduction
The United States Constitution established only one federal court—the United States 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
1 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.”).
2 See id. art. I, §8, cl. 9.
3 See infra “Article III Courts Today,” at pp. 7.
4 See generally Richard A. Posner, THE FEDERAL COURTS: CRISIS AND REFORM 26 (1985).
5 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).
6 Gene R. Nichol, Jr., Federalism, State Courts, and Section 1983, 73 VA. L. REV. 959, 959 (September 1987).
7 See U.S. CONST. art. III, §1.
8 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
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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
(...continued)
Congress to make all needful rules and regulations, respecting the territory belonging to the United States.”).
9 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.
10 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
Andrew Nolan, Richard M. Thompson II, and Vivian S. Chu, at pp. 21-44.
11 See U.S. CONST. art. III, §1.
12 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.”).
13 See U.S. CONST. art. III, §1.
14 See United States v. Hatter, 532 U.S. 557, 569 (2001).
15 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.... ”).
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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview
was lodged in a democratic majority.16 As a consequence, the Framers envisioned a written
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
16 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)
(“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.”)
17 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).
18 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).
19 Martin H. Redish, Federal Judicial Independence: Constitutional and Political Perspectives, 46 MERCER L. REV.
697, 700-701 (1995).
20 See THE FEDERALIST, No. 78, at 437 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).
21 See THE FEDERALIST, No. 79, at 440 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).
22 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.”).
23 THE FEDERALIST, No. 78, at 435-36 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).
24 See Bickel, supra note 12, at 20.
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Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview
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
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
25 See Jonathan T. Molot, Principled Minimalism: Restricting the Balance between Judicial Minimalism and Neutral
Principles, 90 VA. L. REV. 1753, 1761-1762 (2004).
26 THE FEDERALIST, No. 78, at 433 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).
27 370 U.S. 530, 534 (1962) (Harlan, J.) (plurality opinion).
28 Id.
29 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.
30 289 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).
31 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.
32 Glidden Co., 370 U.S. at 541; see also Act of July 28, 1953, §1, 67 Stat. 226.
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Williams, that his constitutional right to have an Article III court adjudicate the breach of contract
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
33 See Glidden Co., 370 U.S at 533.
34 Id. at 530.
35 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.”).
36 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.
37 Glidden, 370 U.S. at 552.
38 Id. at 555.
39 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.
40 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.
41 Id. at 552.
42 Glidden Co. v. Zdanok, 370 U.S. 530, 585 (1962) (Clark, J., concurring).
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because of changes in the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims to make the court more like an
Article III court.43
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 then-
Judge 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
43 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).
Justices Frankfurter and White did not participate in the case. Id.at 530.
44 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.”).
45 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.
46 See Glidden Co., 370 U.S. at 552 (Harlan, J.); id. at 585 (Clark, J., concurring).
47 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.... ”).
48 Id. at 552 (Harlan, J.) (plurality opinion).
49 United States v. Cavanagh, 807 F.2d 787, 791 (9th Cir. 1987).
50 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.”)
51 Id. (citing United States v. Megahey, 553 F. Supp. 1180, 1196 (E.D.N.Y. 1982)).
52 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
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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
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secure” as the judge’s on that court do not lose their life tenure or salary protections. Id.
53 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).
54 See CRS Report R43426, U.S. Circuit and District Court Judges: Profile of Select Characteristics, by Barry J.
McMillion, at p. 2. Congress has established three additional 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).
55 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.”).
56 See 28 U.S.C. §1291.
57 See Ind. Lumbermens Mut. Ins. Co. v. Reinsurance Results, Inc., 513 F.3d 652, 658 (7th Cir. 2008) (Posner, J.).
58 Richard J. Pierce, Jr., The Relationship Between the District of Columbia Circuit and Its Critics, 67 GEO. WASH. L.
REV. 797, 798 (1999).
59 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 October 2, 2014).
60 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).
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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
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.
61 See 50 U.S.C. §1803(a), (d).
62 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).
63 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.
64 8 U.S.C. §1532(a). The United States 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.
65 See 28 U.S.C. §251; see generally UNITED STATES COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE, About the Court,
http://www.cit.uscourts.gov/AboutTheCourt.html#jurisdiction (last visited October 2, 2014).
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Table 1. Current Article III Courts
Number of Jurists
Name of Court
Provided for in Law
Staffed by . . .
Description of Court
Supreme Court of the
Justices, appointed by the
Generalist, Appellate
United States
9 total, see 28 U.S.C. §1
President with Senate
advice and consent
Regional Federal Circuit
167 total divided between
Circuit court judges,
Generalist, Appellate
Courts of Appeal (1st, 2nd,
the 12 regional courts of
appointed by the President
3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th,
appeal, see 28 U.S.C. §44
with Senate advice and
10th, 11th, D.C.)
consent
Regional District Courts
655 total divided between
District court judges,
Generalist, primarily
the 91 regional district
appointed by the President courts of first impression
courts, see 28 U.S.C. §133
with Senate advice and
consent
Court of Appeals for the
12 total, see 28 U.S.C. §44
Circuit court judges,
Specialized, Appellate
Federal Circuit
appointed by the President
with Senate advice and
consent
Foreign Intelligence
3 total, see 50 U.S.C.
Circuit and district court
Specialized, Appellate
Surveillance Court of
§1803(b)
judges, designated by the
Review
Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court
Foreign Intelligence
11 total, see 50 U.S.C.
District court judges,
Specialized, court of first
Surveillance Court
§1803(a)
designated by the Chief
impression
Justice of the Supreme
Court
Judicial Panel on
7 total, see 28 U.S.C.
Circuit and district court
Specialized, Administrative
Multidistrict Litigation
§1407(d)
judges, designated by the
Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court
Alien Terrorist Removal
5 total, see 8 U,S,C, §1532
District court judges,
Specialized, court of first
Court
designated by the Chief
impression
Justice of the Supreme
Court
Court of International
9 total, see 28 U.S.C. §251
Judges of the United States Specialized, court of first
Trade
Court of International
impression and appel ate
Trade, appointed by the
review of certain
President with Senate
administrative actions
advice and consent
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
66 See U.S. CONST. art. III, §1.
67 See Lockerty v. Phillips, 319 U.S. 182, 187 (1943) (“[Congress] could have declined to create any such courts,
(continued...)
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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.
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
(...continued)
leaving suitors to the remedies afforded by state courts, with such appellate review by this Court as Congress might
prescribe.”).
68 See THE FEDERALIST, No. 78, at 435 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).
69 See James E. Pfander, Rethinking the Supreme Court’s Original Jurisdiction in State-Party Cases, 82 CALIF. L. REV.
555, 559 (May 1994).
70 See Judiciary Act of 1789, ch. 20, 1 Stat. 73, 73.
71 See Erwin Chemerinsky, Ending the Parity Debate, 71 B.U.L. REV. 593, 596 (July 1991).
72 See N. Pipeline Constr. Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 458 U.S. 50, 60 n.10 (1982) (plurality opinion).
73 See CRS Report R43538, U.S. Circuit Court Judges: Profile of Professional Experiences Prior to Appointment , by
Barry J. McMillion.
74 See Maxwell L. Stearns, Survey: VII Judicial Decisionmaking: Appellate Courts Inside and Out, 101 Mich. L. Rev.
1764, 1771 (May 2003).
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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
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 non-
Article 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
75 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
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).
76 U.S. CONST. art. III, §1.
77 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).
78 See Constitutional Rationale for Article III Courts, supra pp. 2-3.
79 See, e.g., American Insurance Co. v. 356 Bales of Cotton (Canter), 26 U.S. (1 Pet.) 511 (1828 (upholding use of
territorial courts).
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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
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 United States
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
80 Thomas v. Union Carbide Agr. Products Co., 473 U.S. 568, 569 (1985).
81 Freytag v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 501 U.S. 868, 879 (1991).
82 Fallon, supra note 77, at 643.
83 26 U.S. 512.
84 Paul M. Bator, The Constitution as Architecture: Legislative and Administrative Courts Under Article III, 65 IND. L.
J. 233, 264 (1990).
85 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.”).
86 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.
87 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.”).
88 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.”).
89 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.”).
90 26 U.S.C. §7441.
91 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.”).
92 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.”).
93 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.”).
94 48 U.S.C. §1424, 1424b.
95 48 U.S.C. §1611, 1614.
96 48 U.S.C. §1821.
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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
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
97 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.... ”).
98 See H.R. Rep. No. 595, 95th Cong., 1st sess. 539 (separate views of Congressmen Railsback, Danielson, Mann, and
Hyde).
99 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).
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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
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 non-
Article 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
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.”).
108 Id.; see generally 28 U.S.C. §2509.
109 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).
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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
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,
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).
119 Northern Pipeline, 458 U.S. at 64-67.
120 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.
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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
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
124 American Insurance Co. v. 356 Bales of Cotton (Canter), 26 U.S. (1 Pet.) 511 (1828).
125 Canter, 26 U.S. at 546.
126 Id. at 546.
127 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).
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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
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
135 Id. at 408.
136 Dynes v. Hoover, 61 U.S. (20 How.) 65, 79 (1857).
137 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).
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the public rights doctrine are cases involving claims or benefits against the government.145 The
United States 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 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
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).
149 26 U.S.C. §7443(f).
150 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).
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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
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
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.
158 Thomas v. Union Carbide Agricultural Products Co., 473 U.S. 568 (1984).
159 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).
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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
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 United States
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
165 Id. at 2611.
166 Id. at 2612.
167 Id. at 2613-14.
168 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.
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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.
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
174 Id. at 51.
175 Id. at 54-57.
176 Fallon, supra note 77, at 925.
177 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.
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“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.
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
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).
184 28 U.S.C. §631.
185 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).
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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
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,
193 §636(b)(1)(B).
194 Id.
195 Raddatz, 447 U.S. at 676.
196 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.
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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
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
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
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)).
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business to legislative judges that do not have life tenure and guaranteed compensation and,
therefore, are presumably less independent.213
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
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.”).
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.
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“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
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
223 See Schor, 478 U.S. at 856.
224 Id.at 854.
225 Id. at 856.
226 Id. at 855.
227 501 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).
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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
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 proceed before a bankruptcy court.239 During the
October 2013 term, the Court declined to resolve split amongst the circuits on the constitutional
issue in EBIA v. Arikson.240 The High Court, however, recently granted certiorari to a similar case
to Arikson and may soon ultimately clarify the extent to which Congress can allow consenting
parties to have traditional claims adjudicated before a non-Article III tribunal.241 Without further
guidance from the Court, it would appear at the very least legislation that affords a narrow class
of claims to be adjudicated before a non-Article III tribunal and provides Article III courts with
substantial oversight of the legislative court’s activities would arguably pass constitutional muster
under the logic of Schor and Peretz.
234 Id.
235 Id. at 1048 (Posner, J., dissenting).
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 134 S. Ct. 2165, 2173 (2014) (interpreting the bankruptcy code such that when a Stern claim is presented to a
bankruptcy court, that the court is authorized to and should issue proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law to be
reviewed de novo by the district court, obviating the underlying constitutional issue).
241 See Wellness Int’l Network, Ltd. v. Sharif, No. 13-935, 83 U.S.L.W. 3011 (July 1, 2014).
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Author Contact Information
Andrew Nolan
Richard M. Thompson II
Legislative Attorney
Legislative Attorney
anolan@crs.loc.gov, 7-0602
rthompson@crs.loc.gov, 7-8449
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