William Rehnquist, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, spoke Saturday about the passage of the anti-terrorism bill at the University's Law School in Caplin Auditorium.
Rehnquist spoke to an overflowing room of University students, faculty and alumni. He was the keynote speaker for the Law School's 175th Anniversary Celebration, which featured two days of speakers involved in law.
Rehnquist discussed the anti-terrorism bill just passed by Congress and signed by President Bush. The bill, passed in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, gives the federal government more investigative power and supports tougher penalties against those who aid terrorists. "There will most likely be litigation arising out of these new laws," Rehnquist said.
Rehnquist also focused on the future of the federal judiciary systems. There has been "a remarkable increase in the business of the federal courts," he said of the growing number of federal cases.
He went on to discuss ways to decrease the amount of cases, such as preventing plaintiffs from suing out-of-state defendants in the plaintiff's home state.
He also suggested "creating special subject matter courts" to help handle the volume.
Rehnquist pointed out that other countries handle the increasing case load by expanding the size of their federal court system.
He referenced a recent visit to Bulgaria, in which he learned that Bulgarian courts had 68 justices on its Supreme Court compared to the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. But the justices served on "specialized panels" and rarely met.
This would be a difficult system for the United States to adjusted to, he added.
According to Rehnquist, there is no one solution to the current trend of an increasing case load.
"It is difficult to predict the future of the judicial system ... because it has no control over its destiny," he said.
Some University students said they enjoyed Rehnquist's speech.
"I thought it was really good. I was impressed," said second-year engineering student Brad Pinney.
Rehnquist is the 15th chief justice of the Supreme Court.
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