Chandler v. Judicial Council of the Tenth Circuit of United States
| Decision Date | 21 January 1966 |
| Docket Number | M,No. 1111,1111 |
| Citation | 86 S.Ct. 610,382 U.S. 1003,15 L.Ed.2d 494 |
| Parties | Stephen S. CHANDLER, United States District Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma, petitioner, v. JUDICIAL COUNCIL OF THE TENTH CIRCUIT OF the UNITED STATES. isc |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Thomas J. Kenan, for petitioner.
Solicitor General Marshall, for respondent.
Petitioner applied to Mr. Justice White, Circuit Justice for the Tenth Circuit, for "Stay of Order of Judicial Council of the Tenth Circuit of the United States" in the above matter, and the application was by him referred to the Court for its consideration and action.
It appearing to the Court from the response of the Solicitor General to the application that the order from which relief is sought is entirely interlocutory in character pending prompt further proceedings inquiring into the administration of Judge Chandler of judicial business in the Western District of Oklahoma, and that at such proceedings Judge Chandler will be permitted to appear before the Council, with counsel, and that after such proceedings the Council will, as soon as possible, undertake to decide what use, if any, should be made of such powers as it may have in the premises, it is hereby ordered that the application for stay be denied pending this contemplated prompt action of the Judicial Council. The Court expresses no opinion concerning the propriety of the interlocutory action taken.
United States District Judge Stephen S. Chandler here asks for a stay of an "Order" of the Judicial Council of the Tenth Circuit directing that until further order of the Council, Judge Chandler "take no action whatsoever in any case or proceeding now or hereafter pending" in his court, that cases now assigned to him be assigned to other judges, and that no new actions filed be assigned to him. If this order is not stayed and if the Judicial Council has some way to enforce it, the order means that Judge Chandler is completely barred from performing any of his official duties and in effect is removed or ousted from office pending further orders of the Council. The reason given by the Council for this drastic action is that it "finds that Judge Chandler is presently unable, or unwilling to discharge efficiently the duties of his office. * * * " By refusing to stay the Council's order, the Court necessarily acts on the premise that the Council has a legal right to remove Judge Chandler from office at least temporarily. Though the Court tries to soft-pedal its refusal to stay the order by referring to it as "interlocutory in character," the stark fact which cannot be disguised is that a United States District Judge, duly appointed by the President and approved by the Senate, is with this Court's imprimatur locked out of his office pending "further proceedings" by the Judicial Council. I think the Council is...
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Adams v. Rubinow
...as an interlocutory action, even without passing on 'the propriety of the interlocutory action taken' in Chandler v. Judicial Council, 382 U.S. 1003, 1004, 86 S.Ct. 610, 15 L.Ed.2d 494. In that case, the council had found that the judge "is presently unable, or unwilling, to discharge effic......
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Pacemaker Diagnostic Clinic of America, Inc. v. Instromedix, Inc.
...declared himself in "wholehearted agreement" with Justice Black's dissent from the denial of a stay in Chandler v. Judicial Council, 382 U.S. 1003, 86 S.Ct. 610, 15 L.Ed.2d 494 (1966) (mem.), which One of the great advances made in the structure of government by our Constitution was its pro......
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Chandler v. Judicial Council of Tenth Circuit of United States
...* * * and that at such proceedings Judge Chandler will be permitted to appear before the Council, with counsel * * *.' 382 U.S. 1003, 86 S.Ct. 610, 15 L.Ed.2d 494. On January 24, 1966, Judge Chandler addressed a letter to his fellow district judges indicating that he objected to the removal......
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Palmore v. United States 8212 11
...with the federal judiciary have not been successful, unless it be the bizarre decision of this Court in Chandler v. Judicial Council, 382 U.S. 1003, 1004, 86 S.Ct. 610, 15 L.Ed.2d 494, in which Mr. Justice Black and I dissented. The States, of course, have mostly gone the other way.10 But a......