EMERGENCY COURT OF APPEALS

In the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, Congress established a comprehensive system of administrative control over prices, as a means of checking the inflation that accompanied this country's entry into world war ii. The Act created a temporary Emergency Court of Appeals, staffed by federal judges from the district courts and courts of appeals, with exclusive jurisdiction to determine the validity of price control regulations. Regulated persons thus could not challenge the administrative regulations' constitutionality or statutory authorization in the ordinary state or federal courts—either in injunctive proceedings or by way of defense to criminal prosecutions for their violation. The only course open was to obey the regulations and challenge their validity in the newly created court.

In a series of decisions, the most important of which was yakus v. united states (1944), the Supreme Court upheld the validity of this scheme (Lockerty v. Phillips, 1943; Bowles v. Willingham, 1944; see also judicial system).

A Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals, established in 1971, is similarly staffed by judges from other federal courts. It hears appeals from the district courts in cases arising under various congressional statutes regulating allocation and pricing of certain commodities.

Kenneth L. Karst
(1986)

Bibliography

Bator, Paul M.; Mishkin, Paul J.; Shapiro, David L.; and Wechsler, Herbert, eds. 1973 Hart and Wechsler's The Federal Courts and the Federal System, 2nd ed. Pages 317–322. Mineola, N.Y.: Foundation Press.