Line #11 Main/CircuitJudge


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11	[[quoteright:252:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/circuit_judge.jpg]]
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13	A judge who moves from place to place within his area of jurisdiction, "riding the circuit."
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15	In the early days of the United States of America, the country had a large land area and a relatively low population density. This became even more so when the Western Territories were acquired. Among other things, this meant that most towns and counties didn't need a full-time judge.
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17	Instead, outside the major cities, a judge would be assigned a territory, the "circuit". He would move from place to place within the territory, "riding the circuit", trying any new cases that had come up since the last time he'd held court in that jurisdiction. Often, the judge would be accompanied by several "circuit lawyers" who traveled with the judge to find clients in need of their services (a town that doesn't need a full-time judge is unlikely to need full-time trial lawyers either). UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln was a circuit lawyer for a while.
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19	Even the justices of the US Supreme Court initially had to ride a circuit to hear appeals when the full court wasn't in session. This is why people left the bench before dying, which unfortunately has apparently become par for the course.
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21	As population density increased, cities and counties eventually needed full-time judges, but a remnant of the tradition remains in the names of some courts such as the Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals, the largest and most famous of which is the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (which covers the Western United States). It has also come to be used metaphorically: the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit covers an area far too small to be a circuit in the traditional sense, and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit doesn't have a region attached to it at all: its jurisdiction is limited by the subject matter of the cases.
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23	In fiction, the Circuit Judge generally moves plots by his absence. If the protagonist is WronglyAccused, he will have to cool his heels in jail until the judge comes, allowing the real crook to finish his evil scheme or leave town. Time for a jail break!
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25	Another common plot is for a particularly despised accused criminal to be threatened by an angry mob while in jail awaiting the arrival of the judge. TheSheriff must either engage in ShamingTheMob until the judge can arrive, or undertake a dangerous cross-country journey with the alleged crook to where the judge is sitting so he can get a fair trial and be hanged legal-like. Occasionally the Sheriff will refer to the Marshal (meaning a Federal Marshal[[note]]These stories tend to be told within US territories rather than states; territories are under direct federal jurisdiction[[/note]]) instead of the Circuit Judge as being the one to take the prisoners off his hands. This is connected, because the Marshal is the one who would escort the prisoner to the Judge.
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27	Once the Circuit Judge shows up, he's either the HangingJudge or a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, depending on the needs of the plot.
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29	In England and Wales, these were called "justices of assize", part of the Courts of Assize and finally abolished in 1972. The Courts Act that abolished the Assize Courts established the system of "[[UsefulNotes/BritishCourts Circuit Judges]]" in modern England and Wales (they wear purple robes and are often called "circus judges" for a laugh); although they might sit in a few different jurisdictions they don't follow a regular "circuit" as such. Circuit judges were also present in Medieval China, which, given that China is about the same size as the United States and often had (and still has!) relatively underpopulated "frontier" areas, should come as no surprise. They were particularly common during the UsefulNotes/TangDynasty.
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31	The term has also translated into other professions; a Methodist minister responsible for more than one chapel or community is known as a "circuit minister" and his circle of "parishes" is the Circuit.
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33	!!Examples:
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35	[[foldercontrol]]
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37	[[folder:Comic Books ]]
38	* Gold Key published four issues of a ''ComicBook/JudgeColt'' comic book about a gun-toting circuit judge.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
42	* In ''Film/{{Draw}}'', Starret manages to persuade the townsfolk of Bell City to wait until the circuit judge arrives so Holland can get a fair trail: confident that Holland will be acquitted once the facts are known. Unfortunately, the judge turns out to be a HangingJudge who has a personal grudge against Holland.
43	* In ''Film/FortyGuns'', Judge Macy is the circuit judge for Cochise County, and completely in the pocket of Jessica Drummond. However, not even he will attempt to make a charge of murdering a USMarshal go away.
44	* Luke Perry plays circuit judge John Goodnight in TV movie trilogy; ''Film/GoodnightForJustice'', ''Goodnight for Justice: The Measure of a Man'' and ''Goodnight for Justice: Queen of Hearts''.
45	* ''Film/HangEmHigh'' is a version where the Circuit Judge is actually a major supporting character- and he is the original HangingJudge (he was called that during his own lifetime) who is in charge of all cases in "Indian Territory" (Oklahoma). The main protagonist (Clint Eastwood) is the Marshal for the judge.
46	* ''Film/{{The Sons Of Katie Elder}}'' uses a combination of WronglyAccused and ShamingTheMob, followed by moving the prisoners to where the circuit judge is.
47	* Judge Spicer is the circuit judge for that part of the Arizona Territory in ''Film/{{Tombstone}}''.
48	[[/folder]]
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50	[[folder:Literature]]
51	* In the ''Literature/BenSnow'' story "Dagger Money", Ben is hired to protect a Circuit Judge.
52	* The Adjudicator in the Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novel ''Lucifer Rising''.
53	* Creator/TimothyZahn's ''Literature/{{Dragonback}}'' series has a space version, where Judge-Paladins travel from planet to planet. In the fifth book, the main character is corralled into serving as a Judge-Paladin for an isolated group of aliens. [[spoiler: He discovers shortly afterward that his parents were Judge-Paladins who were killed while visiting the same group of aliens.]]
54	* In the ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series, this is one of the main peacetime duties of the Heralds; one entire book, ''Arrow's Flight'', consists of the protagonists riding circuit, and it makes up a majority of the plot of ''Bastion'' as well.
55	* There was a series of paperback westerns called ''The Judge'' by Hank Edwards about a gun-toting circuit judge.
56	* Literature/JudgeDee is the Tang dynasty-China version, moving from jurisdiction to jurisdiction every three years (so as to avoid getting judges too chummy with the locals, leading to corruption).
57	[[/folder]]
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59	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
60	* Creator/{{SBS}} show ''Series/TheCircuit'' is about a modern day example of this, following the court as it goes on its circuit of remote Aboriginal communities in the West Australian outback.
61	* The Adjudicator in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E4ColonyInSpace Colony In Space]]'' is a Circuit Judge [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]]! Or he would be, if he wasn't [[spoiler: the Master]].
62	* ''Series/FrontierCircus'': Ben is hauled before a circuit judge, who is a HangingJudge, when he is accused of murder in "Quick Shuffle".
63	* In ''Series/HereComeTheBrides'', William Zuckert appears in a few episodes as [[SuddenNameChange Judge Young or Judge Weems]].
64	* Creator/RobertVaughn played one of these in ''Series/TheMagnificentSeven'' TV series. He was a ReasonableAuthorityFigure and paid the Seven to keep the peace in the town during his frequent absences.
65	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "Rule of Law" has a judge travel to an alien planet to preside over the case of an alien accused of attacking humans.
66	* ''Series/TwinPeaks'' features a circuit judge who drives around in an RV hearing cases. In reality, Washington does in fact have a functioning legal system but RealityIsOutToLunch in Twin Peaks.
67	[[/folder]]
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69	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
70	* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'':
71	** The Marukan regions don't have permanent settlements, just roaming clans of people BornInTheSaddle, so their judges are similarly nomadic. Judges are usually partnered with a CoolHorse, like those bred locally, that helps them traverse the vast, roadless grassland.
72	** Imperial magistrates administer justice within a given region, which can be a city or a group of villages. One of the perks of being a magistrate is that they can "requisition" any food or shelter they want, and don't have to pay for it. Useful when you're exhausted from travelling all day...
73	** Many priests of the Immaculate Order are assigned to a backwater "territory" that they work in. Their duties include naming babies, blessing marriages, and exorcising ghosts with spiritual kung fu.
74	* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'': The Silver Ladder MagicalSociety has Lictors, who circulate within a prescribed area to promote the core tenets of the organization and judge mages accused of crimes by their peers -- mundane laws are [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers beneath their notice]].
75	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'': Travelling Judges are licensed by a magistrate to dispense justice on a specific stretch of land. Since they're usually failed city lawyers who have a financial interest in ordering as many trials as possible and rely on showmanship and fear to prop up their authority in the hinterlands, the quality of said justice is pretty patchy.
76	-->''"No one [[HangingJudge except the gravedigger]] celebrates when a travelling judge arrives on the scene."''
77	[[/folder]]
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79	[[folder:Western Animation]]
80	* In ''WesternAnimation/YogiBear'', an imprisoned criminal's henchmen did their best to prevent the circuit judge from entering their town so the criminal would have to eventually be released. Unable to get past them, the judge made ''WesternAnimation/{{Snagglepuss}}'' the new judge and had him preside over the trial.
81	[[/folder]]

Context Main / CircuitJudge