Case Citator › Ex parte McCardle

Ex parte McCardle

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Questioned by some courts
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 506
Decided
Confirmed treatments
2
Flagged citations read
65 of 65
Treatment dates
1970–1981
Questioned by some courts
At least one reviewed court has questioned this case’s reasoning or continued validity. No reviewed court has overruled it. Ex parte McCardle is questioned in two Fifth Circuit opinions but remains otherwise good law on this review. All 65 flagged citations have been read.
More on how this was screened

King v. Finch and Federal Trade Commission v. Jim Walter Corp. questioned whether McCardle remains fully applicable to fundamental congressional changes affecting the federal judiciary, without deciding that issue. Later opinions continued to apply its rule that a court without jurisdiction must dismiss and its holding on Congress's power to withdraw appellate jurisdiction. The two confirmed questions are listed below.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

65 citations to Ex parte McCardle sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Ex parte McCardle?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Questioned

  • The Fifth Circuit questioned McCardle’s continuing vitality concerning Congress’s power to make fundamental changes in the role of the federal judiciary, but left the issue undecided.

    King v. Finch · Fifth Circuit · filed

    We do not base our decision on McCardle, however, for two reasons: First, there is some question as to the continuing vitality of McCardle as respects the power of Congress to make fundamental changes in the role of the federal judiciary. ... Second, the Act at issue in McCardle foreclosed only one avenue of approach to the Supreme Court, that of appeal as distinguished from certiorari, and thus it presents a different question from this case, in which appellant’s substantive rights are directly changed.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

  • The Fifth Circuit described the debate over McCardle’s continued vitality as leaving open whether due process limits Congress’s power to regulate the federal judiciary.

    Federal Trade Commission v. Jim Walter Corp. · Fifth Circuit · filed

    Cf. Ex parte McCardle, 74 U.S. (7 Wall) 506, 19 L.Ed. 264 (1869) (Congress may eliminate the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court over federal cases). Whether due process imposes any limit on congressional exercise of its regulatory power under Article III is still an open question, as the debate over the continued vitality of McCardle suggests.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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