Sticky Procedure and Procedural Values in the Federal Appellate Courts

Authors

  • Merritt E. McAlister

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/lawreview.2024.1068

Abstract

New federal appeals have fallen by forty percent over the last three decades. And yet the case management procedures—reduced oral argument, unpublished decisions, case-screening, and staff attorneys—adopted to help courts tackle rising caseloads have remained. And these case management adaptations appear as durable as ever. The “stickiness” of these adaptations suggest that efficient resolution of disputes is the sine qua non of modern appellate practice. Equally sticky are some longstanding disparities in the extent to which different federal appellate courts rely on these efficiencies, raising new questions about the extent to which the federal appellate courts share core adjudicatory values.

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Published

2025-05-07

How to Cite

McAlister, Merritt E. 2025. “Sticky Procedure and Procedural Values in the Federal Appellate Courts”. University of Pittsburgh Law Review 86 (2). https://doi.org/10.5195/lawreview.2024.1068.

Issue

Vol. 86 No. 2 (2024): Print Edition

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Merritt E. McAlister

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