Findings

The Congress finds as follows: (1) Circuit riding, the system of the Supreme Court justices traveling the country to serve as judges of the various Federal circuit courts, was an essential component of the Supreme Court’s practice for the first 121 years of its history. See David R. Stras, Why Supreme Court Justices Should Ride Circuit Again, 651 MINN. L. REV. 1710, 1711 (2007); see also Stuart v. Laird, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 299 (1803) (rejecting constitutional objections to circuit riding). That practice ended in 1911. (2) For the justices, the practice of circuit riding exposed the justices to life outside of Washington and brought them closer to the American public. (3) Today’s justices, in contrast, spend roughly 9 months a year cloistered in the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC, rendering decisions and issuing opinions on some of the most consequential issues of the day. See Stras, supra, at 1711. (4) The principal historical arguments against circuit riding regarded burdensome travel and a burgeoning docket. Both concerns have dissipated. Modern-day travel is convenient and the Supreme Court’s docket has shrunk considerably. According to an analysis by Adam Feldman, a lawyer and political scientist who publishes empirical work on the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court’s workload has steadily declined since the 1960s. Indeed, by the mid-2010s, the Supreme Court was deciding fewer cases than it has since the Civil War and Reconstruction. Adam Feldman, Looking Back to Make Sense of the Court’s (Relatively) Light Workload, EMPIRICAL SCOTUS (Jan. 9, 2018). (5) Today, the public’s confidence in the Supreme Court is near historic lows. Joseph Copeland, Favorable views of Supreme Court remain near historic low, PEW RSCH CTR. (Aug. 8, 2024). Most Americans cannot even name a single Supreme Court justice. See Emily Birnbaum, Poll: More than half of Americans can’t name a single Supreme Court justice, ROLL CALL (Aug. 28, 2018). (6) For these reasons, restoring the practice of circuit riding would help to restore the public’s trust in the justices, bring them closer to the people, and expose them to life outside of the secluded confines of Washington, DC. As then-professor (now judge) David Stras observed, [a] modern form of circuit riding would ensure that justices gain exposure to a wider array of legal issues, the laws of various States, and the difficulties faced by lower courts in implementing the Court’s sweeping (and sometimes confounding) rulings Stras, supra, at 1711.