Article III, Section 1 ofthe United States Constitution vested the federal judicial power in the Supreme Court and “in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” The Judiciary Act of 1789 was the first attempt by Congress to establish inferior federal courts. President George Washington signed the act on September 24, 1789. The principal architects of the act were Senators Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, William Paterson of New Jersey, and Caleb Strong of Massachusetts. All three were lawyers. Ellsworth and Paterson would later serve on the Supreme Court—Ellsworth as the second chief justice. The act established a judicial structure very different from what we have today, providing for U. S. district courts, each presided over by a district judge, and for circuit courts, which, unlike circuit courts today, heard appeals from the district courts and acted as trial courts. The most important cases heard by the circuit courts as trial courts were cases between persons who resided in different states where the amount in controversy was greater than $500.
This sort of jurisdiction is called “diversity” jurisdiction: the parties are citizens of diverse states. Perhaps surprisingly, the courts were not at this time given what we call “federal question” jurisdiction: the jurisdiction to hear claims involving federal law, regardless of the home states of the parties. Under the 1789 act, the circuit courts were comprised of three judges: the same district judge whose decision was being challenged, and the two Supreme Court justices who had been assigned to the circuit. There were initially three circuits: Eastern, Middle and Southern. Riding the Southern Circuit was especially onerous for the justices, and the elimination of the circuit system was one of the most popular features of the Judiciary Act of 1801. The 1801 act, however, was repealed the following year, and the practice resumed. Circuit riding did have its positive side. The appearance of the Supreme Court justices was a major event for most communities, an opportunity to socialize with an important federal official. John Marshall, when on circuit duty in Raleigh, North Carolina, regularly played quoits with members of the community. Conversely, circuit riding enabled the justices to keep in touch with the country.
The Judiciary Act of 1789 also empowered the Supreme Court to hear appeals from state courts in certain cases involving federal law. Section 25 of the act, which granted this authority, was extremely controversial. States were resistant to the idea that the federal Supreme Court could reverse the judgments of the highest state courts. Nevertheless, the section stood.
Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, among other things, empowered the Supreme Court to issue writs of mandamus (court orders that state “we command”) against public officers. This provision was held unconstitutional in Marbury v. Madison (1803).
The Judiciary Act of 1789 governed the federal judicial structure during virtually the whole of the early republican period. Its peculiarities both reflected and helped shape early republican legal culture.
Further reading: Maeva Marcus, The Origins of the Federal Judiciary: Essays on the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Wilfred Ritz, Rewriting the History of the Judiciary Act of 1789: Exposing Myths, Challenging Premises and Using New Evidence (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990).
—Lindsay Robertson
World History
