The Judiciary Act of 1789

• The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the basic three-tiered structure of the federal court system.

Federal District Courts

• Federal district courts are at the bottom tier.
• Each state has at least one federal district court.
• Each federal district court is staffed by a federal judge.
• Litigants unhappy with the district court's verdict could appeal to one of three circuit courts.

Circuit Courts

• Each circuit court was initially created to function as a trial court for important cases.
• Each circuit court was composed of one district court judge and two itinerant Supreme Court justices.
• The circuit court convened twice a year.
• Circuit courts took on their exclusively appellate function in 1891.
• Appellate courts review the decisions of lower courts to determine if the court applied the law correctly.

Supreme Court

• Congress set the size of the Supreme Court at six in the Judiciary Act: one chief justice and five associate justices.
• The Constitution mentions the Supreme Court but was silent on its size.
• The size of the Supreme Court was reduced to five in 1801.
• The size of the Supreme Court expanded to nine in 1869.

Supreme Court History

• The Supreme Court's first session had to be adjourned when a quorum of justices failed to attend.
• The justices decided only one major case, Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), once a quorum assembled.
• The Supreme Court was considered the "least dangerous" branch, so the view of the people of the Supreme Court was very low.
• The justices first met in public session in New York City in 1790, highlighting the relative ineffectiveness of the Court.
• One associate justice left the Court to become chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court, which reflected the Court's lowly status at the time.
• Many viewed the states as more important than the new national government.

Circuit Court History

• Circuit court duties of the Supreme Court justices presented problems for the prestige of the Court.
• Few good lawyers were willing to accept nominations to the high Court.
• Frequent changes in personnel, limited space, no clerical support, and no reporting of decisions hampered the Court.
• Circuit court duties involved substantial travel, mostly on horseback over poorly maintained roads in inclement weather.
• Southern justices often rode as many as 10,000 miles a year on horseback.
• George Washington tried to fill vacancies on the Court, but most people refused the "honor".
• John Jay declined an offer to rejoin the Court, remarking that it lacked "energy, weight, and dignity" as well as "public confidence and respect."
• John Adams ran into similar problems when asking John Jay to resume the position of chief justice after he resigned to become governor of New York.

Setting the Tradition

• The justices attempted to establish the Supreme Court as an independent, nonpolitical branch of government by declining to advise George Washington on the legality of some of his actions.
• The Court refused to answer questions from Washington on international laws and treaties.
• The justices wanted to avoid prejudging any issues that could arise later.

Justices' Decisions and Nationalism

• The early Court tried to advance principles of nationalism.
• The early Court tried to maintain the national government's supremacy over the states.
• The justices rendered decisions on matters such as national suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion and Alien and Sedition Acts.
• The Whiskey Rebellion occurred in 1794 after a national excise tax was imposed on whiskey.
• The Alien and Sedition Acts made it a crime to criticize national governmental officials or their actions.

Judicial Power and State Sovereignty

• Anti-Federalists warned during the ratification debates that Article III extended federal judicial power to controversies "between a State and Citizens of another State."
• A citizen of one state could sue any other state in federal court, which was considered unthinkable to defenders of state sovereignty.

Chisholm v. Georgia (1793)

• The justices interpreted the Court's jurisdiction under Article III, section 2, to include the right to hear suits brought by a citizen against a state in which he did not reside.
• The nationalist Supreme Court proved the Federalists wrong in Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), who had scoffed at that possibility.
• Justice James Wilson denounced the “haughty notions of state independence, state sovereignty, and state supremacy” in Chisholm.

Eleventh Amendment

• The states' reaction to the perceived attack on their authority led to the passage and ratification (in 1798) of the Eleventh Amendment.
• The Eleventh Amendment specifically limited judicial power.
• The Eleventh Amendment stipulates that the authority of the federal courts could not "extend to any suit...commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State."

Judicial Review

• The Court first evaluated the constitutionality of an act of Congress in 1796 and found the law to be constitutional.
• The justices paved the way for the doctrine of judicial review by John Marshall through circuit and Supreme Court decisions.