Burger proposes creating new court

NEW ORLEANS (UPI) – Arguing the quality of American justice is at stake, Chief Justice Warren Burger is asking Congress to creat e a new federal court to decide some of the Supreme Court’s cases. Burger said the flow of cases is so overwhelming the court is threatened with a ” breakdown of the system – or of some of the justices.” He said “patchwork remedies” cannot solve the problem. “It is the most important single, immediate problem facing the judicial branch ,” Burger declared. Denying he was “crying wolf,” the nation’ s top DAI LY jurist recommended setting up a temporary panel of judges to settle conflicting rulings among the circuit courts of appeal, and perhaps disputes over federal statutes. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who also addressed the American Bar Association’s annual midwinter meeting Sunday, made a similar proposal for a new court. “There is no one single, permanent solution,” O’Connor said. “Each time the court’s caseload increases, congressional action is necessary to make some significant change in the court’s jurisdiction or its procedures to reduce the numbers. It’s been 58 years since the last major changes.” Burger’s proposal, made in his annual State of the Judiciary address, was the first time he has endorsed such a major change to reduce the court’s case burden – a topic that eight of the nine justices have spoken about publicly since last summer. Proposals for a new judicial layer between the appeals courts and the Supreme Court have been floated