The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit will hear oral arguments this week on the island of St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. A three-judge panel will travel to the islands to hear matters arising from the islands themselves in order to best accommodate the travel burden of arguing counsel. The court hears oral arguments in the U.S. Virgin Islands twice a year, usually once in December, and once in either April or May. Oral arguments are conducted in St. Thomas during even years (e.g., 2014, 2016), and in St. Croix during odd years (e.g., 2013, 2015). The kind and number of cases heard all depends on the docket before the court and the confidential decision-making process of the judges.

Various historians and researchers have attempted to answer the perplexing question of why the U.S. Virgin Islands were assigned to the Third Circuit for appellate review. As the Third Circuit is based in Philadelphia, the question of why it was chosen has baffled historians for years. Judges, librarians and researchers on the matter have concluded that the decision made by Congress in 1917 was simply a spontaneous choice, made without regard for social or economic considerations. Congress’s almost 100-year-old decision continues to subject the islands to the judicial precedent of the Third Circuit based in Philadelphia, over 1,600 miles away. This overview attempts to clarify the relationship of the Third Circuit and the islands, the circumstances surrounding that congressional decision and the influence of one Senator Willard Saulsbury Jr.

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