Addendum to the Papers of Daniel J. Meador 1977-1982 [b]

Collection Summary

Creator:	Meador, Daniel J.
Title:	Addendum to the Papers of Daniel J. Meador 1977-1982 [b]
Accession:	MSS 82-3b
Parent Collection:	The Papers of Daniel J. Meador 1959 - 1975
Description:	14 boxes.
Location:	Special Collections
Photograph Collection:	View 2 digitized photographs
Digitized Content:	2 objects
Use Restrictions:	There are no restrictions.

Collection Description & Arrangement

This addition to the Meador Papers has been divided into two series: Series I (Box 1-13) is comprised of Justice Department papers, and Series II (Box 14), of University faculty committee work.

The files in Series I, 1977-1982 are Meador's personal working papers from his years in the Justice Department, and Charles Haworth's working papers on both phases of the federal circuit court plan. Meador's papers are arranged alphabetically by folder heading. Haworth numbered his files before giving them to Meador in 1991, and his sequence is roughly chronological. Following Haworth's papers are a chronology of the Federal Courts Improvement Act, copies of the legislative history, and Meador's collection of memoranda, speeches, legislative material, and clippings on the new appellate court.

Series II, 1968-1977 (bulk 1976-1977), is comprised of Meador's files on a number of law school and University-wide committees, one of which is restricted.

Biographical & Historical Information

When President Jimmy Carter took office in 1977, he appointed Griffin Bell Attorney General. Bell immediately set up the Office for Improvements in the Administration of Justice (OIAJ) to be headed by an assistant attorney general, a position he asked Daniel J. Meador to fill.

In an article published in 1982 in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Meador described the work of the office he directed:

"The OIAJ had a variety of missions; central among them was the responsibility to work with Congress and the judiciary on measures to improve the federal courts. This step expressly committed the department, for the first, time to a broad-gauged, continuous program for the improvement of the entire judicial system, both civil and criminal. . . . Between 1977 and 1980, this office initiated several major legislative proposals concerning the courts and collaborated with congressional committees in developing other. . . . These included bills to broaden the Supreme Court's discretion to determine the cases it would hear, to establish a new intermediate appellate court, to relieve the courts of unnecessary diversity of citizenship jurisdiction, to broaden the authority of federal magistrates, to reform class damage actions, and to improve various aspects of federal court administration." "Role of the Justice Department in Maintaining an Effective Judiciary." Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci., July 1982, 142.

Ten years later in an article in The American University Law Review Meador described in detail the history and fruition of one of those bills which created the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a merger of the Court of Claims and the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals. The plan for proposing a new appellate court began to take shape in early 1978 with the assistance of Charles R. Haworth, law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and deputy assistant attorneys general Ronald Gainer and Paul Nejelski. Phase I of the plan involved Haworth's contacting many people in Washington to gather ideas and a sense of support for or opposition to the restructuring of the appellate courts. Phase II involved drawing up a proposal to create a new court of appeals, assimilating the reactions of the judiciary, and working with members of Congress to draft acceptable legislation. The bill was introduced in Congress in 1979, passed in 1980, and signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982. "Origin of the Federal Circuit: A Personal Account." 41 Am. U.L. Rev.581-620 (1992).

Meador returned to teaching law at Virginia in August of 1979, and Maurice Rosenberg, a law professor at Columbia University took his place as head of OIAJ. Benjamin Civiletti replaced Bell who also left the Justice Department in August of that year. However, Meador was present in the Rose Garden in April of 1982 when the President signed the Federal Circuit Court bill into law.

Acquisition Information

Date Received	1992
Donor Information	This addition to the Daniel J. Meador Papers was given to the library in June of 1992.

Content List

Series I

Box 1:

Advisory Committee to the ABA President-elect regarding judicial reform 1978-79
ABA Annual Meeting 1977-78 [2 folders]
Anglo-American Exchange 1977-78
Aspen Institute 1978

Box 2:

Attorney General Griffin Bell's Daily Schedules 1977-79 [2 folders]
Correspondence Logs 1977-79 4 folders

Box 3:

Criminal Justice Symposium-New Orleans 1977
Daily Summary [of DJM's activities] 1977
D.C. Circuit Judicial Conference 1977-79
Federal Circuits-Third, Fifth, Sixth and Tenth 1977
Federal District Judgeships-Virginia 1977-79
Federal Judicial Council 1977
Federal Justice [Improving Legal Services] 1976-77
Ford Foundation Meeting [re current problem of legal systems] 1978
General Memoranda 1976-81 [2 folders]

Box 4:

History of Department of Justice 1978
Insanity Defense-copies of correspondence 1975
Interoffice Memoranda, Reports, Clippings, etc. 1978-80 [6 folders]

Box 5:

Invitations received by DJM while at DOJ 1977-79 [2 folders]
Justice News 1978-79
Law Enforcement Assistance Administration 1977-79
Legislative Program-96th Congress 1978-79
Memoranda from DJM to Griffin Bell 1977-78
Walter F. Mondale Correspondence 1977
National Court of Appeals Act 1977, 1979
Newsclippings re DJM 1977

Box 6:

Notices to Office of Public Information 1978-79
Omnibus Judgeship Bill 1978
Professional and Personal Correspondence: A-P 1977-78 [6 folders]

Box 7:

Professional and Personal Correspondence: R-W 1977-79 [3 folders]
Professional Correspondence-Miscellaneous 1977-78 [2 folders]

Box 8:

Professional Correspondence-Miscellaneous 1979-80 [3 folders]
Rulemaking Process 1977
Staff Meeting Reports 1977
Speeches before Federal Bar Association in Denver and Washington 1978
Speeches or testimony by DJM 1977-79
State Courts 1977-79
White House Memos 1977-78

Box 9:

Haworth Folder 1: Meador-Haworth Correspondence 1978
Haworth Folder 2: Miscellaneous published commentary and news articles on The Proposal 1978-79
Haworth Folder 3: Correspondence between Meador, Haworth, and other regarding proposals for Phases I and II 1977-78
Haworth Folder 4: General background memorandum regarding class actions 1977
General background information regarding Rule 12B6 motion n.d.
Haworth Folder 6: Outline of Meador's speech to annual meeting of Federal Bar Association 1978
Haworth Folder 7: House Resolution 11276 regarding transfer for lack of jurisdication 1978
Haworth Folder 8: Computer search regarding environmental cases 1978
Haworth Folder 9: Meador memoranda to Bell regarding Phase I and The Proposal 1978
Hawoth Folder 10: Speech by Erwin Griswold 1977
Haworth Folder 11: ABA draft proposal regarding pre-judgement interest 1978
Haworth Folder 12: Carrington memorandum 1977-78
Haworth Folder 13: Request for comment on a proposal to limit the obligatory appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court 1978
Haworth Folder 14: Memorandum on re-litigation in the circuits n.d.
Haworth Folder 15: Memorandum regarding Circuit Solicitor 1977
Haworth Folder 16: Arthur Miller memorandum regarding complex litigation 1978
Haworth Folder 17: Copies of various bills unrelated to either Phase I or II 1977
Haworth Folder 18: Analysis of recommendations of the Hruska Commission 1978
Haworth Folder 19: Memoranda regarding interviews by Haworth, Hauptley, and McMullen in Washington 1978 and n.d.
Haworth Folder 20: Research regarding court costs 1978
Haworth Folder 21: Draft memoranda on elimination of dual routes in patent and trademark cases 1978
Haworth Folder 22: Drafts of proposals regarding amendments to 28 U.S.C. 45(b) n.d.
Haworth Folder 23: Drafts of proposals on post-judgement interest n.d.
Haworth Folder 24: Drafts of proposals regarding Advisory Committee Rules n.d.
Haworth Folder 25: Research memoranda regarding habeas corpus 1978

Box 10:

Haworth Folder 26: Research regarding final judgment rule n.d.
Haworth Folder 27: Various form of bills regarding The Proposal 1979
Haworth Folder 28: Research regarding 28 U.S.C. 2112 1978
Haworth Folder 29: Analysis and research on local appellate rules 1978

Box 11:

Haworth Folder 30: Phase I proposals 1978 [3 folders]
Haworth Folder 30 (continued): Reactions to Phase I proposal 1978 [2 folders]
Haworth Folder 30 (continued): Response to reactions 1978
Haworth Folder 31: Copies of The Proposal 1978
Haworth Folder 32: Reactions to The Proposal 1978 [3 folders]

Box 12:

Haworth Folder 33: Preliminary Notes for May '78 letter from Haworth to Meador [1978]
Haworth Folder 34: Analysis of comments received on The Proposal, correspondence regarding drafting and drafts of a bill 1978-79 [2 folders]
Chronology of the Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982 n.d.
Copies of the legislative history 1978-82

Box 13:

Copies of the legislative history 1978-82
Meador's Federal Circuit Court memoranda, legislative material, speeches, clippings, etc. 1978-81

Series II

Box 14:

Building Committee 1973-74
Landscaping Committee 1974-76
Law School Foundation 1976
Law School--General 1976-77
Public Occasions Committee (University) 1976-77
Sesquicentennial Associate 1975-76
Sokol Colloquium 1976-77
University--General 1968-76

Associated People

Daniel J. Meador

Use Policy

Access	There are no restrictions.
Use Restrictions	There are no restrictions.
Preferred Citation	Addendum to the Papers of Daniel J. Meador 1959-1975, MSS 82-3b, Box Number, Special Collections, University of Virginia Law School Library
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