Katz on The "Judicial Power" and Contempt of Court: A Historical Analysis of the Contempt Power as Understood by the Founders

Emile J. Katz, University of California, Berkeley, has published The "Judicial Power" and Contempt of Court: A Historical Analysis of the Contempt Power as Understood by the Founders, at 109 Cal. L. Rev. 1913 (2021). Here is the abstract.

This Note focuses on the power of the federal judiciary to hold litigants in contempt of court. In particular, this Note analyzes whether the contempt power of the federal judiciary stems from an inherent grant of power in the Constitution or whether it is derived purely from acts of Congress. The extent to which Congress can limit judges’ power to punish contempt depends on whether judges have an inherent power to punish contempt. Because judges have used the power to punish in ways that abridge individual liberties and civil rights, it is imperative that Congress be aware of whether it can constitutionally limit judicial conduct vis-a-vis contempt. Part I of this Note outlines what judges and scholars have written about an inherent judicial contempt power. Part II of this Note explores whether the drafters and ratifiers of the Constitution intended to vest the judiciary with an inherent contempt power. In doing so, this Note examines the most important sources from the Founding Era. Those sources include texts from pre-revolutionary British legal practice, American colonial practice, revolutionary state practice, the ratification debates, and the actions of the Founders immediately following the ratification of the Constitution. By tracing the history of the contempt power from British practice all the way to constitutional ratification, this Note provides a comprehensive overview of how the thoughts of the framers changed over time and what the framers finally intended with regard to contempt when they drafted the Constitution. This Note argues that the framers did not intend to create an inherent judicial contempt power and that judges’ contempt power is therefore under Congress’s control.

Download the note from SSRN at the link.