White-Collar Courts

Article III courts are white-collar courts. They are, scholars have said, "special." They sit atop the judicial hierarchy, and they are the courts of the one percent. We inculcate that sense of specialness in a variety of ways: federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction; they are th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inVanderbilt law review Vol. 76; no. 4; pp. 1155 - 1213
Main Author McAlister, Merritt E
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Nashville Vanderbilt University, School of Law 01.05.2023
Vanderbilt Law Review
Subjects
Analysis
Attitudes
Elitism
Ethical aspects
Federal courts
Government mandates
Judicial ethics
Judicial process
Laws, regulations and rules
Litigation
Macroeconomics
Power
Powers and duties
State courts
White collar crimes
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Summary:Article III courts are white-collar courts. They are, scholars have said, "special." They sit atop the judicial hierarchy, and they are the courts of the one percent. We inculcate that sense of specialness in a variety of ways: federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction; they are the subject of a (perhaps overrated) class in law school; we privilege clerkships with federal judges more than with state-court judges; and we focus more scholarly attention on federal courtsthan state courts. They are, in short, the courts of the elite--jurisdictionally, doctrinally, and socially. Perhaps the singular importance of federal courts was inevitable, but this Article explores that attitude's darker side. White-collar courts privilege certain kinds of disputes and certain classes of litigants; federal courts prefer white-collar work to blue-collar work. Such privilege, this Article argues, creates expressive and attitudinal harms: it imposes a value judgment about the work of federal courts that denigrates some, while exalting others.
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ISSN:0042-2533
1942-9886