hief Justice Marshall regarded the rule-making power
as essentially legislative in nature, he ruled that Congress could
delegate to the courts the power to vary minor regulations in the
outlines marked out by the statute. Fifty-seven years later in Fink
_v._ O'Neil,[81] in which the United States sought to enforce by summary
process the payment of a debt, the Supreme Court ruled that under the
process acts the law of Wisconsin was the law of the United States and
hence the Government was required to bring a suit, obtain a judgment,
and cause execution to issue. Justice Matthews for a unanimous Court
declared that the courts have "no inherent authority to take any one of
these steps, except as it may have been conferred by the legislative
department; for they can exercise no jurisdiction, except as the law
confers and limits it."

Limits to the Power

The principal function of court rules is that of regulating the practice
of courts as regards forms, the operation and effect of process, and the
mode and time of proceedings. However, rules are sometimes employed to
state in convenient form principles of substantive law previously
established by statutes or decisions. But no such rule "can enlarge or
restrict jurisdiction. Nor can a rule abrogate or modify the substantive
law." This rule is applicable equally to courts of law, equity, and
admiralty, to rules prescribed by the Supreme Court for the guidance of
lower courts, and to rules "which lower courts make for their own
guidance under authority conferred."[82] As incident to the judicial
power, courts of the United States possess inherent authority to
supervise the conduct of their officers, parties, witnesses, counsel,
and jurors by self-preserving rules for the protection of the rights of
litigants and the orderly administration of justice.[83]

The courts of the United States possess inherent equitable powers over
their process to prevent abuse, oppression and injustice, and to protect
their jurisdiction and officers in the protection of property in the
custody of law.[84] Such powers are said to be essential to and inherent
in the organization of courts of justice.[85] The courts of the United
States also possess inherent power to amend their records, correct the
errors of the clerk or other court officers, and to rectify defects or
omissions in their records even after the lapse of a term, subject,
however, to the qualification that the power to amend records