“ ALL DELIBERATE SPEED MEANT GO:”
Judge Jane Kelly presents on a historical perspective of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
By Katie Winbauer
On Oct. 3, Eighth Circuit Judge Jane Kelly provided a luncheon presentation entitled,“ The Eighth Circuit: A Historical Perspective.” The event was hosted by SBAND’ s Women Lawyers Section and sponsored by many local law firms.
Judge Kelly is the second woman to serve on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and she is currently the only woman serving on the court. After working as a federal public defender in Iowa, she was appointed as a circuit judge in 2012 by President Barack Obama.
From Circuit Riders to Circuit Courts of Appeal
Judge Kelly began her presentation where federal practice began – the Judiciary Act of 1789. She spoke of the early“ circuit courts,” where Supreme Court justices rode circuit with district judges to hear cases across the country. Eventually, in 1891, Congress passed the Evarts Act, which established nine courts of appeal. In early days, the Eighth Circuit was large and stretched to Utah and Wyoming. The docket was mostly comprised of civil disputes over land, water, railroads, and patents. Federal criminal laws were not what they are now.
Prohibition accelerated the federal criminal docket. The Volstead Act, which enforced the 18th Amendment’ s prohibition of alcohol, brought on new federal criminal cases. Federal district courts felt the burden during this time, and part of the workload was due to an increase in motions. After the Supreme Court embraced the exclusionary rule in the 1910s, a wave of motions to suppress kept federal courts busy. Questions that occupy criminal litigators today – such as probable cause to search a
Judge Kelly, center right, pictured with members of the Women Lawyers Section.
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Judge Jane Kelly basement, evidentiary weight of the smell of a substance, and the scope of consent – were the same issues litigated at that time.
Judge Davies and the Era-Faithful Courtroom
Judge Kelly spent a portion of her presentation connecting North Dakota to the Eighth Circuit’ s history. She described the story of North Dakota’ s federal district Judge
Ronald Davies volunteering to help with a backlog of cases in the Eastern District of Arkansas. Judge Davies became the presiding judge of a desegregation case that got national attention and eventually made its way to the United States Supreme Court, Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U. S. 1( 1958). This case pertained to the“ Little Rock Nine” who were African American high school students turned away from Little Rock Central High School.
Against the backdrop of the United States Supreme Court stating all schools had to desegregate“ with all deliberate speed,” Judge Davies ordered that Little Rock proceed with integration and expressly enjoined the government from preventing students from attending Little Rock Central High School, threatening or coercing students not to attend, or interfering with federal court orders requiring the implementation of desegregation plans. The United States Supreme Court ultimately affirmed Judge Davies’ decision.
Fast forward 65 years, and a project is taking place to put Judge Davies’ courtroom back together in the federal courthouse in Little Rock. The courtroom will be called the Era-Faithful Courtroom, designed to look and feel like it did in 1957. Judge Davies’ bench and other courtroom furnishings have been restored, and many of the same artifacts that were in the courtroom when Cooper v. Aaron was argued will be in the courtroom today. The original courtroom doors have been preserved so anyone who walks into the Era-Faithful Courtroom will walk through the same doors Thurgood Marshall walked through when he argued Cooper v. Aaron. Judge Kelly is not alone in admiring the Era- Faithful project, as Chief Justice Roberts arranged for Judge Davies’ desk and other artifacts to be on display at the United States Supreme Court until December 2026. After that, everything will return to Little Rock and make its permanent home in the Era-Faithful Courtroom. The Era-Faithful