and orders and accepting admissions to the bar. Admissions to the bar may be made at the opening of business on any day the Court is in session.

The Court holds conferences on the Saturday of each week during which arguments are heard, as well as on the Saturday preceding each fortnightly period of argument. The conferences normally consider the cases argued during the preceding week, as well as other business before the Court. After the last cases are argued in April or May, the Court continues in session until all cases are disposed of, usually some time in June. During this period the Court convenes only on certain announced Mondays to announce decisions and orders and hear motions for admission to the bar.

The Supreme Court Building is located in Washington, D. C., on the block bounded by 1st Street N.E., East Capitol Street, 2nd Street N.E., and Maryland Avenue, directly across from the Capitol, adjoining the Library of Congress, and a few blocks south of the Union Station. Facilities are available for checking coats and luggage.

Library. A large law library of 173,000 volumes is available for the use of members of the bar of the Supreme Court, Members of Congress, and government attorneys (Rule 2). Small rooms off the Library are provided, with typewriters if needed, in which counsel may work and confer. Transcripts of the records in all Supreme Court cases since 1832 and all briefs since 1854 may be examined in the Library. The Library contains original legislative source material and specially prepared compilations of the legislative history of important recent federal statutes. Books may not be removed from the building, but counsel appearing in a case may request that any books be sent to him in the Courtroom for use during the argument.

5 See Chapter XV, p. 374, infra.

Clerk's Office. The Clerk's Office is located in the corridor to the right as one enters the building on the main floor, up the long tier of steps at the entrance. Persons having business with or seeking information from the Clerk's Office will seldom need to see the Clerk personally. If they are concerned with admissions to the bar, they should go to Room 105. If they wish to secure briefs or records, they should go to Room 106, and to get opinions they should go to Room 101. For all other matters, they should proceed to Room 102. The Office is open from 9 A. M. to 5 P. M., Mondays through Fridays, and from 9 A. M. to noon on Saturdays, legal holidays excepted.

The Clerk's Office receives all papers which are to be filed with the Supreme Court and distributes them to the Court, administers the Court's calendar and dockets, supervises the printing of records and other papers required to be printed, taxes costs and collects fees, enters orders and judgments and issues mandates, notifies counsel and, where necessary, lower courts of Supreme Court orders and opinions, administers the admissions of attorneys to the bar, and performs other similar duties.

But the Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court is not merely an administrative arm of the Court. It is the unfailingly courteous and helpful source of information as to all questions of Supreme Court procedure. "Ask the Clerk's Office" is the motto of most attorneys familiar with Supreme Court practice when they are confronted with a procedural problem— though the new Rules try to make inquiries of the Clerk's Office less necessary than before. The observation of Attorney General Garland over fifty years ago is equally true today:

"It is well to note, that it is quite important for lawyers practicing in that court, to see much of the clerk's office and to know its workings. If any motion is to be had or proceedings asked in court specifically provided for by law or rule, it is wise to seek advice there beforehand.

There is much in the practice and usages of the court not provided for by any rule, and in some instances cannot well be covered by rule;-a sort of common law of procedure that lies outside of rules and cannot be put down in written charts. This is necessarily so in all courts. Many useless and sometimes unpleasant collisions between court and counsel are avoided by this precaution. Even the oldest and most experienced attorneys are not ashamed to consult the clerk's office first and they do not hesitate to do so.

Cases filed in the Supreme Court are placed on one of three dockets, the Original Docket, the Appellate Docket, or the Miscellaneous Docket. The Original Docket consists of the small number of cases in which the original jurisdiction of the Court under the Constitution is invoked. The Appellate Docket is the principal docket of cases in which the Court is called upon to review decisions of lower courts. The Miscellaneous Docket is comprised of petitions for certiorari and appeals filed in forma pauperis and applications for the extraordinary writs, such as habeas corpus, prohibition, mandamus and common law certiorari."

A. H. Garland, Experience in the U. S. Supreme Court, p. 12 (1898). 'The Miscellaneous Docket was created in 1945. "Prior to that time, all appeals and petitions for certiorari, including those filed by prisoners in forma pauperis, were placed on the Appellate Docket, while applications for other types of relief went unnumbered and were not placed on any docket unless a motion for leave to file was granted by the Court. With a view toward better identification of these miscellaneous matters, and in order to provide a more accurate account of the Court's work, the Miscellaneous Docket came into existence. Since 1947 all in forma pauperis petitions have been placed on that docket, together with all applications for prohibition, mandamus, habeas corpus, quo warranto, and other miscellaneous relief, whether or not filed in forma pauperis. The Appellate Docket as it now exists thus approximates rather closely the Appellate Docket of the early 1930's. The Miscellaneous Docket reflects the tremendous increase in the volume of in forma pauperis petitions and applications for extraordinary types of relief." Address of Chief Justice Vinson before American Bar Association, Sept. 7, 1949. Those petitions and applications on the Miscellaneous Docket which are granted are then renumbered and placed on the regular Appellate Docket. See also Note, The Supreme Court's 'Miscellaneous' Docket, 59 Harv. L. Rev. 604 (1946).

The Marshal's Office. The Marshal's Office is located in Room 114, to the right of the Courtroom. The Marshal has many functions, which include the maintenance of order in the building and the Courtroom, and the control of original exhibits, such as maps, charts and models (see p. 329, infra). The Marshal, or his assistant, keeps track of the time of arguments, and flashes the white and red lights when time is about to expire. See p. 324, infra. The Marshal also supervises the admission of persons to the Courtroom. Counsel who wishes to have his wife or other relatives hear him argue should present them to the Marshal's Office, where arrangements will be made to seat them in a special and preferable location in the Courtroom.

The Reporter of Decisions and Opinions. The Reporter of Decisions publishes the official Supreme Court Reports, first in advance sheet form as Preliminary Prints. The Reporter is eager to be notified of any typographical or formal errors in the advance edition of opinions, so that corrections may be made before printing the bound volume. The Preliminary Prints now appear approximately five to eight weeks after the opinions are rendered, and the bound volumes five to six months later. Copies of the Preliminary Prints are sold by the Superintendent of Documents, United States Government Printing Office, at a price of $3.00 per term payable in advance. Bound volumes are obtainable from the same source at a price of $4.25 per volume. The individual opinions are also sold by the Superintendent of Documents at a price of $6.00 per term, or five to twenty cents per opinion, depending on its length. The Clerk's Office sends copies of opinions to counsel in the case. A limited additional number of copies of the individual opinions are obtainable from Room 101 in the Clerk's Office on Wednesday or Thursday after the Monday on which the opinions are rendered. The opinions appear in full on Tuesday in the UNITED STATES LAW WEEK, published by the publisher of this

book, and in the Supreme Court Bulletin published by Commerce Clearing House.

The Court's basic jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States stems from Article III of the Constitution. Section 1 vests the judicial power of the United States in the Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. Section 2 extends the judicial power so vested to various enumerated cases and controversies, and defines the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court as covering "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party." Section 2 then provides that "In all the other Cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make."

Since 1789 Congress has made a variety of "Exceptions" and "Regulations" governing the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction. Such legislation is of controlling importance in determining the nature and scope of this jurisdiction. While Congress cannot extend the jurisdiction beyond the limits set by the Constitution, it can impose whatever restrictions and requirements it desires within those limits. Indeed, so determinative is the Congressional action in this area that all cases not expressly provided for by legislation are deemed to be outside the Court's jurisdiction. Durousseau v. United States, 6 Cranch, 307, 314.

It is therefore essential to look to the statutes enacted by Congress to discover the basic framework of the Court's appellate jurisdiction. In 1948, when the Judicial Code was recodified, these legislative guideposts were revised, eliminating inconsistencies and unnecessary wordage. The provisions governing the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court are now to be found in 28 U.S.C. §§1251-1257 and 18 U.S.C. §3731.