EHRLICHMAN v. SIRICA Et Al.

Background

A criminal defendant named Ehrlichman asked the Circuit Justice to delay his federal criminal trial from its September 30, 1974 start until January 1975. The trial originally had been set for September 9; the Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, suggested a three- or four-week delay and the District Judge postponed it three weeks. Ehrlichman argued that heavy pretrial publicity and a lack of preparation time made a fair trial impossible in the current venue and schedule.

Reasoning

Chief Justice Burger, acting as Circuit Justice, denied the requested stay. He explained that an individual Circuit Justice has limited power over pretrial orders and should not normally supervise the trial judge’s scheduling decisions. Courts of appeals, not a single Justice, are the primary supervisory source because they are closer to the trial court’s facts. He noted that referring the matter to the full Court would itself have caused additional delay, and concluded that only extraordinary circumstances would justify intervention by a single Justice.

Real world impact

The decision keeps the District Court’s schedule and venue choices in place and leaves any claims about prejudicial publicity to be resolved later through normal appeals or post-verdict review. The ruling is procedural, not a final judgment on whether media coverage made the trial unfair, so the defendant may still raise those fairness claims in later proceedings. The immediate practical effect is to require the trial to proceed under the district judge’s timetable unless extraordinary new facts arise.