In 1964 Time magazine quoted a leading lawyer as saying: “Without the Fifth Circuit, we would be on the verge of actual warfare in the South.” Half a century ago it was seen as a trailblazer as it handled most civil rights cases.
On Thursday, for example, it temporarily blocked the release of Trump’s White House records relating to the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.īut the fifth circuit, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, has long shown an ability to punch above its weight. They don’t have the power to overturn settled precedent from the supreme court but, if there are cases where there is no precedent and they’re writing on a clean slate, then they get the first crack at defining what the law is.”Īmong the 13 appellate courts, which typically put cases before three-judge panels, the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit in Washington is widely regarded as the biggest hitter.
Their function is primarily to correct the trial judge if they made a mistake. Instead 13 appellate courts, each covering a different region, get to rule on most legal appeals around the country.Įdward Fallone, an associate professor at Marquette University Law School, said: “They’re really error-correcting courts. But the great majority of cases never make it that far. The supreme court does indeed have the last word on the constitutionality of contentious laws and bears Trump’s stamp with his three appointees. But the 5th Circuit, the federal appeals court that covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, is staking out a claim to be the most dangerous,” Ruth Marcus, deputy editorial page editor of the Washington Post, wrote in August.
“The Supreme Court is, no doubt, the nation’s most powerful court. The court’s willingness to entertain Republican extremism has effectively made it their principal legal bulwark against Joe Biden. The consequences of Trump’s reshaping of the federal judiciary are being felt acutely at the fifth circuit on issues ranging from abortion to immigration to the coronavirus pandemic. James Ho, Stuart Kyle Duncan and Cory Wilson are among six judges appointed by former president Donald Trump to the US court of appeals for the fifth circuit, skewing one of the most conservative – and influential – courts in America even further to the right. A third tweeted negatively about Hillary Clinton using the hashtags #CrookedHillary, #basketofdeplorables and #Scandalabra. Another suggested that same-sex marriage “imperils civic peace”. O ne publicly mourned the “moral tragedy of abortion”.
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