Article by Harvey Couch
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit first convened on June 16, 1891, just over ninety years ago. The Customs House in New Orleans was the setting for the court, which consisted of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court assigned to the Fifth Circuit, Don Albert Pardee, Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit, and Robert Andrew Hill, United States District Judge from Mississippi. Pardee, a native of Ohio and former Union officer, moved to New Orleans after the Civil War, and had served for ten years as judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Fifth Circuit.
With the establishment by Congress, in 1891, of nine circuit courts of appeals, Pardee became the first judge on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. On the opening day, the court adopted thirty-four rules, appointed a clerk and admitted sixty-six attorneys to practice before the court. The rules provided that the clerk's office should be in the city of New Orleans where the annual terms would be held. The following day the court appointed a marshall, admitted twenty-three more attorneys and heard arguments on a motion to file the record and docket a case. When the motion was denied, the court adjourned until the third Monday of November.
On November 17, Judge Pardee, sitting with District Judges Locke, of Florida, and Bruce, of Alabama, heard Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Co. v. Robinson, case number one in the records of the court. The court resolved this Texas case on the basis of lack of jurisdiction.
From 1891 until 1981, six states—Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas—constituted the Fifth Circuit. These states, in 1890, had a total population slightly in excess of eight million. Today Florida alone boasts a larger population. In 1891 Texas was the most populous state and New Orleans, with a quarter of a million people, was the most populous city, rivaled only by Atlanta, the population of which exceeded 50,000. Clearly, the Deep South was almost exclusively an agrarian society, and yet its circuit was the third most populous among the nine.
About the Author
Harvey Couch. Associate Dean and Professor of Law, Tulane Law School. B.A. 1959, Hendrix College; M.A. 1962, LL.B. 1963, Vanderbilt University.
Citation
56 Tul. L. Rev. 948 (1982)