[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 20, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S1276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BREAUX:
  S. 1569. A bill to provide for one additional Federal judge for the 
middle district of Louisiana; to the Committee on the Judiciary.


                 LOUISIANA FEDERAL JUDICIAL LEGISLATION

  Mr. BREAUX.
  Mr. President, I rise today to offer legislation that will correct a 
serious inequity in Louisiana's judicial districts.
  My legislation adds an additional judge to the middle district of 
Louisiana, based in Baton Rouge. U.S. District Judges John Parker and 
Frank Polozola, the two Baton Rouge judges, each have almost 2,000 
cases pending. The national average for Federal judges is 400 cases 
pending. Case filings in the middle district have totaled more than 
four times the national average. The Baton Rouge district also ranks 
first among the Nation's 97 Federal court districts in total filings, 
civil filings, weighted filings and in the percent change in total 
filings last year.
  Louisiana's middle district is composed of nine parishes. The State 
capital and many of the State's adult and juvenile prisons and forensic 
facilities are located in this district. The court is regularly 
required to hear most of the litigation challenging the 
constitutionality of State laws and the actions of State agencies and 
officials. The district now has several reapportionment and election 
cases pending on the docket which generally require the immediate 
attention of the court. Additionally, because numerous chemical, oil, 
and industrial plants and hazardous waste sites are located in the 
middle district, the court has in the past and will continue to handle 
complex mass tort cases. One environmental case alone, involving over 
7,000 plaintiffs and numerous defendants, is being handled by a judge 
from another district because both of the middle district's judges were 
recused.
  Since 1984, the middle district has sought an additional judge 
because of its concern that its caseload would continue to rise despite 
the fact that its judges' termination rate exceeded that national 
average and ranked among the highest in numerical standing within the 
United States and the fifth circuit. Both the judicial conference and 
the Judicial Council of the Fifth Circuit have approved the middle 
district's request for an additional judgeship after each biennial 
survey from 1984 through 1994.
  Mr. President, I know that my colleagues will agree with me that the 
clear solution to this obvious inequity is to assign an additional 
judge to Louisiana's middle district. I look forward to the Senate's 
resolution of this important matter.
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