An Industrious Court

Judgê ong lias uow beeu nlne years and one term upon the beuch of the Supreme Court. In the previous thirty yeárs 07 volumes of reports were published. In the nine years and one term docisions enough have been tiled to bring the reports down to the lOSth volume; that is, tn less than one-thiril of the time nenrly two-thlrde a many opinious have boen filed as In the earlier period, and that early period covered the administrations of such hardworkers as Cooley. Campbell, Christiancy and Graves. The five judges are now writing opinión on trom 000 to 700 cases a year, besides deeidlng from 300 to 500 motions, on many of whiih ritten decisipus are flled. For thd number of Judges on the bencb the wm-k of the J court is greater than that of auy other court of last reeort in the country. The work is now brought down to date, All of the cases that werp ready havlng been heard at th( last term. Wlien, as happens in sonie courts, (ases are delayed three or four years; it amounts almost to a denial of justlce, and Iitigants have reason to congratúlate themselves that in the Michigan court no such delays now occur. A r'"ert improvement has been made also in the metbod of handling oases. Xbe opioions handed down are no longer one-man opinions. Under the oíd practice, wben the judges reslded away from the capital, tliey met either Monday uight or Tuesday morning, and without any preparation of the cases, or pvevious knowledge of them, beard fie argumenta, assigued cases to 1 l)i' judges who were to write the iijiinions, and went home Frlday night, each jud.se laking the cases he was to write, ai: 1 not hiiving opportunity to consult the others wiieu any doubtful question arose. Xow the judges all live at Lansing and pxamin ev ry case, looking over the briefs nd records before it is nrgued. er the argument they, together, t. up the records and briefs a;:;ii!, ..nd examine tlie autliorities. so [Mat each Judge has an uuderstanding of every case. and they agree as nearly as may be upon afflrming or leversing the decislons of the lower courts. Wliore a case is in doubt on one or more of the questions involved. they each make au examinatiou of those queatious, and then the case is assigned to one of the judges to be written. As soou as an opinión is written a copy is made and served upnu each judge, so that all have opportunily to examine the opiuions, in connection with the records and briefs, before they meet for the tinal consultatlon, and for attaching their signatures to the decisious. All this tnkes more work thau the fornier metliod, but it gives more thorough study of each case than was ever attempted until recent years. Iu this laborious examinaron of every case that comes up, .Indge Long has done bis f uil share with thorough study and with coiiscieutious care.