The Chief Justice issued his Annual Report on the Judiciary last week to the usual cheers and jeers. So I thought it would be worth reading some of Warren Burger’s annual reports. He started the tradition. Of course, his reports were very different from what we see now.
Chief Justice Burger focused mainly on improving judicial administration. His reports spent a lot of time talking about increasing case loads, costs, delays in deciding cases, and so on. He then commented on various reform proposals like abolishing diversity jurisdiction. Typically he gave these as speeches to the ABA. (Chief Justice Roberts, by contrast, issues his reports as statements). Burger barely discussed constitutional law. He did talk about criminal law in saying that crime rates were high and that reforms were needed to improve deterrence.
Chief Justice Rehnquist carried on this tradition, and I need to read his reports.