In 1890, in order to reduce the burden on the U.S. circuit and district courts, Congress established the Board of General Appraisers to decide controversies related to appraisals of imported goods and classifications of tariffs. The Board was supervised by the Treasury Department, and its decisions could be appealed to the circuit courts and, after 1891, the U.S. circuit courts of appeals. In 1909, Congress created the U.S. Court of Customs Appeals to hear all appeals of the Board’s decisions. Over the years, statutory changes made the Board increasingly judicial in character, and in 1926 Congress renamed it the U.S. Customs Court and declared the Board’s members to be justices of the court (soon changed to judges). In 1980, the U.S. Customs Court was reorganized as the U.S. Court of International Trade.
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