This act abolished the existing circuit courts and
replaced them with Circuit Courts of Appeals. The District Courts of
the United States became "United States District Courts".
This left no Article III courts to hear cases involving constitutional
rights. All district and circuit courts became, at that point,
Article II courts which may only have jurisdiction within territories of
the United States Government. These courts are part of the executive
branch, not the judicial branch, of the U.S. government. The judges
in these Art. II courts are civil service employees of the Office of
Personnel Management, which is part of the Executive Branch. The
judges are not judicial officers as required under Art. III of the
Constitution, but federal employees.
The
Judicial Code of 1911 (excerpted)
March 3, 1911.
36 Stat. 1087, 1167.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN.
GENERAL
PROVISIONS.
SEC.
289. The circuit courts of the United States, upon the taking effect of
this Act, shall be, and hereby are, abolished; and thereupon, on said
date, the clerks of said courts shall deliver to the clerks of the
district courts of the United States for their respective districts all
the journals, dockets, books, files, records, and other books and papers
of or belonging to or in any manner connected with said circuit courts;
and shall also on said date deliver to the clerks of said district courts
all moneys, from whatever source received, then remaining in their hands
or under their control as clerks of said circuit courts, or received by
them by virtue of their said offices. The journals, dockets, books, files,
records, and other books and papers so delivered to the clerks of the
several district courts shall be and remain a part of the official records
of said district courts, and copies thereof, when certified under the hand
and seal of the clerk of the district court, shall be received as evidence
equally with the originals thereof; and the clerks of the several district
courts shall have the same authority to exercise all the powers and to
perform all the duties with respect thereto as the clerks of the several
circuit courts had prior to the taking effect of this Act.
SEC.
290. All suits and proceedings pending in said circuit courts on the date
of the taking effect of this Act, whether originally brought therein or
certified thereto from the district courts, shall thereupon and thereafter
be proceeded with and disposed of in the district courts in the same
manner and with the same effect as if originally begun therein, the record
thereof being entered in the records of the circuit courts so transferred
as above provided.
SEC.
291. Wherever, in any law not embraced within this Act, any reference is
made to, or any power or duty is conferred or imposed upon, the circuit
courts, such reference shall, upon the taking effect of this Act, be
deemed and held to refer to, and to confer such power and impose such duty
upon, the district courts.
SEC.
292. Wherever, in any law not contained within this Act, a reference is
made to any law revised or embraced herein, such reference, upon the
taking effect hereof, shall be construed to refer to the section of this
Act into which has been carried or revised the provision of law to which
reference is so made.
SEC.
293. The provisions of sections one to five, both inclusive, of the
Revised Statutes, shall apply to and govern the construction of the
provisions of this Act. The words "this title," wherever they
occur herein, shall be construed to mean this Act.
SEC.
294. The provisions of this Act, so far as they are substantially the same
as existing statutes, shall be construed as continuations thereof, and not
as new enactments, and there shall be no implication of a change of intent
by reason of a change of words in such statute, unless such change of
intent shall be clearly manifest.
SEC.
295. The arrangement and classification of the several sections of this
Act have been made for the purpose of a more convenient and orderly
arrangement of the same, and therefore no inference or presumption of a
legislative construction is to be drawn by reason of the chapter under
which any particular section is placed.
SEC.
296. This Act may be designated and cited as "The Judicial
Code."