United States Commerce Court
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The Commerce Court of the United States was a brief-lived federal trial court. It was created by the Mann-Elkins Act (36 Stat. 539) of June 18, 1910 and abolished a mere three years later, by 38 Stat. 208, effective December 31, 1913. The Commerce Court was a specialized court, given jurisdiction over cases arising from orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission and empowered with judicial review of those orders. The United States Supreme Court was given appellate jurisdiction over the Commerce Court.
The Commerce Court also had one of the more unusual structures in United States judicial history. There were five judges serving staggered five-year terms on the Commerce Court. These judges were, nonetheless, Article III judges, and were to be reassigned to an appellate court when their term on the Commerce Court expired. Moreover, even while they served on the Commerce Court, they also served as an at-large appellate judge and could be assigned by the Chief Justice of the United States to any appellate court to help relieve the workload.
Once the court was abolished, the four remaining judges of the court served out their lifetime appointment as at-large appellate judges. (The fifth judge of the court, Robert Archbald, had been impeached and removed from office.)
The modern United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, created in 1982, has a purpose similar to the Commerce Court, although the Federal Circuit has broader jurisdiction.
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[edit] Judges
| # | Judge | State | Born/Died | Active service | Term as Chief Judge | Senior status | Appointed by | Reason for termination |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Augustine Knapp | NY | 1843 – 1923 | 1910 – 1913 | (none) | (none) | Taft | abolition of court |
| 2 | Robert Wodrow Archbald | PA | 1848 – 1926 | 1911 – 1913 | (none) | (none) | Taft | impeachment and conviction |
| 3 | John Emmett Carland | SD | 1853 – 1922 | 1911 – 1913 | (none) | (none) | Taft | abolition of court |
| 4 | William Henry Hunt | MT | 1857 – 1949 | 1911 – 1913 | (none) | (none) | Taft | abolition of court |
| 5 | Julian William Mack | IL | 1866 – 1943 | 1911 – 1913 | (none) | (none) | Taft | abolition of court |
[edit] Table notes
[edit] Judgeship
- This column refers only to the judges' terms in the Commerce Court.
