Report on Committee II

Professor Abraham's paper presents con siderable evidence that the American people consider the Judiciary the most effective of the major government insti tutions. One of the committee's questions was why this was so. Two possible reasons are: the Supreme Court has shown a capacity to resolve issues the nation felt should be re solved ; the Court has often met people's expectations better than other government institutions. The committee gave considerable attention to the selection of judges, particularly the criteria for their selection. It devoted some time, also, to issues relating to the organization of judicial resources: whether diversity jurisdiction and 3-judge courts should be abolished, and whether federal judicial salaries should be raised. Surprisingly little time was spent on questions of the proper role of the Supreme Court in American society. Four major themes were the focus of the discussion of federalism: what are the implications of federalism for governmental effi ciency ; would a system placing more authority at the local level result in greater citizen participation; how much is known about how federalism operates; and should govern mental units be designed which are appropriate in scale to the tasks expected of them?