# Who's America's Top Judge **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 11, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246 "2011-01-11T19:03:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/1 "2011-01-11T19:03:13Z")
[Link to Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2975/who-is-america-s-top-judge) Nice job, **Elendil’s Heir**. Informative and well written. Is this your first staff report? I don’t recall seeing others from you… ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/2 "2011-01-11T20:09:08Z")
I thought maybe this was a new reality TV series. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/3 "2011-01-11T20:12:54Z")
You mean it’s not Simon Cowell? (Yeah, I know, he’s British.) I did get confused by one paragraph: > [@](#): > > Incidentally, although Roberts and his predecessors are sometimes described as “Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,” that title is incorrect. This is largely due to the efforts of the sixth Chief Justice, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. Chase had been appointed “Chief Justice of the Supreme Court” by President Lincoln in 1864, but craved a grander title and styled himself “Chief Justice of the United States.” Congress went along shortly afterwards, and later Chief Justices have all borne the modified title, which emphasizes the Chief Justice’s role as the leader of the judiciary, a coequal branch of the federal government. So you’re saying that title _used to be_ correct, but Congress’s acceptance of Chase’s action made the new title official and, therefore, the old title _wrong_? ---
**Author:** ![Doctor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Doctor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/4 "2011-01-11T20:32:08Z")
Great to see a new Staff Report - it’s been a little while. And I agree, it was well written and informative. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/5 "2011-01-12T15:01:53Z")
Thanks, everyone. **Oakminster** , this was actually my third Staff Report. Here are the two earlier: > **[Who was the real Casey Jones?](https://www.straightdope.com/21343959/who-was-the-real-casey-jones)** > > A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD > **[Is the Secret Service responsible for keeping the president from getting drunk?](https://www.straightdope.com/21344000/is-the-secret-service-responsible-for-keeping-the-president-from-getting-drunk)** > > A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD **Irishman** , Congress changed the title, reflecting Chase’s view of the job’s national importance. His predecessors had the old title; he and all of his successors up to the present day have the revised title. Use of the old title when referring to John Jay through Roger B. Taney is technically correct, since that’s what the title was during their service on the Court, but often nowadays the Chase-inspired revised title is used retrospectively. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/6 "2011-01-12T18:46:58Z")
Ditto on the kudos. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about government, but I was really interested in some of the minor powers/perks of the office. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/7 "2011-01-12T18:56:23Z")
Thanks. I encourage anyone interested in the Supreme Court today to read Jeffrey Toobin’s _The Nine_, which I listed in my bibliography. It’s a great read, and a fascinating mix of law, history, politics and gossip. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/8 "2011-01-13T02:15:59Z")
Here’s a somewhat related question. In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, I read a few stories\* that referred to Judge John Roll as, ‘the highest federal judge in Arizona.’ I can understand referring to the chief justice of the _state’s_ supreme court as the highest, but this has me stumped. I thought at the federal level we generally have districts containing multiple states- Wikipedia tells me AZ is in the 9th along with much of the west. So can a state have a highest federal judge, is that a mistake, or what? - I can’t find any of the stories now, but I believe one was MSNBC and another was a local AZ paper. Both were from the day of the shooting. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/9 "2011-01-13T02:33:10Z")
Congrats, **Elendil’s Heir** , on the Staff Report… and upon your promotion to the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, a title which now gloriously appears under your name. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/10 "2011-01-13T05:03:19Z")
**MeDrewNotYou** , the late lamented Judge Roll was the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. The entire U.S. and its territories have been divided up by Congress into 94 Federal Districts - bigger states are subdivided, but others (such as Arizona and most Western states except California and Washington State) are a single Federal District unto themselves. Roll was the top judge of the Federal trial court of that state. Here’s more on the court: [United States District Court for the District of Arizona - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_District_of_Arizona) While the Federal trial-level courts are organized into named _districts_, the Federal courts of appeals are organized into numbered _circuits_. As you note, Arizona is part of the Ninth Circuit, which covers most of the West. Here’s a good map of the geographic reach of the entire Federal judiciary: [Circuit Map.ai -- Page 1](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/US_Court_of_Appeals_and_District_Court_map.svg) Many thanks for your kind words, **CKDH**! Although I’m not really a scientist, now I get to pretend to be one on teh Intrawebs. (Might make more sense to change the SDSAB’s second “s” to “staff” rather than “science,” come to think of it). ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/11 "2011-01-13T06:56:24Z")
:smack: The link to the section on the district court of AZ was on his wiki page. Thanks for the links and clarification. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/12 "2011-01-13T14:02:37Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Many thanks for your kind words, **CKDH**! Although I’m not really a scientist, now I get to pretend to be one on teh Intrawebs. (Might make more sense to change the SDSAB’s second “s” to “staff” rather than “science,” come to think of it). I’ve actually disliked the term SDSAB ever since it was inaugerated, lo these many centuries ago. However, Ed invented it and likes it. I think it tracks from the Latin, where _scientia_ means “knowledge.” There’s a reference in Cicero’s Orations to the _Straitus Dopus Scientia Advocationis Tabula_, where Straitus Dopus was the name of a senator, who had a Knowledge Counseling Board. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/13 "2011-01-13T14:15:57Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > … where Straitus Dopus was the name of a senator, who had a Knowledge Counseling Board. A little-known fact about Senator Dopus was that, although his wife was reputed the most beautiful woman in Rome, he actually preferred the company of young men. So the scurrilous wits of the day painted on the walls of the Capitol, “Straitus non straitus sed gaius est.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/14 "2011-01-13T14:24:25Z")
Oh, yeah… I think I remember a passing reference to him in _Gladiator_. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/15 "2011-01-13T16:22:44Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > who had a Knowledge Counseling Board. Nowadays, we call that a “clue-by-four”. Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/16 "2011-01-13T22:38:54Z")
Yes, nice one, Elendil’s Heir! What I liked reading in there (from the protocol order of precedence like) was that the mayor of my town can shove any ex-presidents aside and take a better seat in events in my town, and that the governor of Delaware can tell all the other governors to “eat his shorts” at events when both governors are out of their own state. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/17 "2011-01-14T03:46:28Z")
Yes, there are some quirks to the list. For instance, the U.S. ambassador outranks his or her own boss, the Secretary of State, when in the country to which the diplomat has been assigned. And if I were the mayor of Washington, D.C., I’d go to every White House and State Department event I could, and be guaranteed of outranking virtually everyone there! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/18 "2011-01-14T17:38:14Z")
More on Judge Roll, including praise from the Chief Justice: [http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/14/arizona.memorial/index.html?hpt=T2](http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/14/arizona.memorial/index.html?hpt=T2) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2013, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/19 "2013-03-30T05:38:28Z")
More on the very low public profile of the Chief Justice: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/03/29/the-best-supreme-court-chart-ever/](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/03/29/the-best-supreme-court-chart-ever/) ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2013, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246/20 "2013-03-30T21:57:41Z")
Just noting: until today’s post, this thread is from 2011. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-americas-top-judge/567246.md?page=2)