Title 28 — Judiciary and Judicial Procedure
Part I · Chapter 3 — Courts of Appeals
§ 42. Allotment of Supreme Court justices to circuits
Statutory text
The Chief Justice of the United States and the associate justices of the Supreme Court shall from time to time be allotted as circuit justices among the circuits by order of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice may make such allotments in vacation.
A justice may be assigned to more than one circuit, and two or more justices may be assigned to the same circuit.
Legislative history
Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.
Title 28, United States Code, section —
Pub. L. 80–646 · 62 Stat. 869
Enacted · 28 U.S.C. § 42
(June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 870.)
Source evidence
Code source credit
(June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 870.)
0 of 1 references resolved to an enrolled provision · 1 partial
Notes
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., § 215 (Mar. 3, 1911, ch. 231, § 119, 36 Stat. 1131; Dec. 23, 1944, ch. 724, 58 Stat. 925).
The authority of the Chief Justice in vacation to assign a circuit justice to more than one circuit was extended by omitting the phrase “whenever by reason of death or resignation, no Justice is allotted to a circuit.”
The provision in section 215 of Title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., that, for the purposes of said section, the “District of Columbia shall be deemed to be a judicial circuit,” was omitted, since the District of Columbia is made a judicial circuit by section 41 of this title.
The last paragraph was added to make clear the intent of Congress that the powers of the Court to assign the justices among the several circuits should be completely flexible.
Changes were made in phraseology.
Credits
(June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 870.)