Intramural Reforms: How the U.S. Courts of Appeals Have Helped Themselves

"Intramural reforms" are measures by which the U.S. courts of appeals have adapted the traditional appellate procedures that have historically performed the appellate role and function in our federal system. These reforms amount to procedural shortcuts, resulting in an abbreviated appellate process, justified primarily by the press of docket. The federal appellate system has been under pressure from a crisis of case volume. Like a living organism, the system has adapted to meet those stresses. Without such adaptations, the system would not have survived. The evolution, however, has already resulted in serious compromises in the ideals and traditional function of the federal appellate courts. Furthermore, "intramural reforms," the judge-made changes discussed in this Article, appear to be exhausted. This is to suggest, at the outset, that whatever added efficiency or additional appellate capacity that might be realized from intramural reforms has already been achieved in most courts of appeals.