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The United States Judiciary Act of 1789 (1 Stat. 73) was a landmark statute adopted on September 24, 1789 in the first session of the First United States Congress. It established the U.S. federal judiciary. The Constitution stated only that the "judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." It made no provision for the composition or procedures of any of the courts, leaving this to Congress to decide.
The existence of a separate federal judiciary had been controversial during the debates over the ratification of the Constitution. Anti-Federalists had denounced the judicial power as a potential instrument of nationalist tyranny. Indeed, of the ten amendments that eventually became the Bill of Rights, five (the Fourth through Eighth) dealt primarily with judicial proceedings. Even after ratification, some opponents of a strong judiciary urged that the federal court system should be limited to a Supreme Court and perhaps local admiralty judges. The Congress, however, decided to establish a system of federal trial courts with broader jurisdiction, thereby creating an arm for enforcement of national laws within each state.
Establishment of federal courts
The Act set the number of Supreme Court Justices at six, including one Chief Justice and five associate justices. The Supreme Court was given exclusive original jurisdiction over all civil actions between states, or between a state and the United States, as well as over all suits and proceedings brought against ambassadors and other diplomatic personnel; and original, but not exclusive, jurisdiction over all other cases in which a state was a party and any cases brought by an ambassador. The Court was given appellate jurisdiction over decisions of the federal circuit courts in major civil cases (but not criminal cases), as well as decisions by state courts holding invalid any statute or treaty of the United States; or holding valid any state law or practice that was challenged as being inconsistent with the federal constitution, treaties, or laws; or rejecting any claim made by a party under a provision of the federal constitution, treaties, or laws.
It also created 13 judicial districts within the 11 states that had then ratified the Constitution (North Carolina and Rhode Island were added as judicial districts in 1790, and other states as they were admitted to the Union). Each state comprised one district, except for Virginia and Massachusetts, each of which comprised two. Massachusetts was divided into the District of Maine (which was then part of Massachusetts) and the District of Massachusetts (which covered modern-day Massachusetts). Virginia was divided into the District of Kentucky (which was then part of Virginia) and the District of Virginia (which covered modern-day West Virginia and Virginia).
The Act established a circuit court and district court in each judicial district (except in Maine and Kentucky, where the district courts exercised much of the jurisdiction of the circuit courts). The circuit courts, which were comprised of a district judge and (initially) two Supreme Court justices "riding circuit," had jurisdiction over more serious crimes and civil cases, while the single-judge district courts had jurisdiction primarily over admiralty cases, along with petty crimes and lawsuits involving smaller claims. Federal civil jurisdiction included cases in which the parties were citizens of different states (diversity jurisdiction), as well as cases in which the United States was the plaintiff. The circuit courts were grouped into three geographic circuits to which justices were assigned on a rotating basis.
Miscellaneous provisions
The act defined a judicial oath for the justices and the district judges:
- I do solemnly swear or affirm, that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me, according to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably to the constitution, and laws of the United States. So help me God.
Congress authorized persons who were sued by citizens of another state, in the courts of the plaintiff's home state, to remove the lawsuit to the federal circuit court. The power of removal, and the Supreme Court's power to review state court decisions where federal law was at issue, established that the federal judicial power would be superior to that of the states.
The Act created the office of Attorney General, and also provided for the appointment of a marshal, one or more deputy marshals, and a district attorney for each judicial district.
A clause granting the Supreme Court the power to issue writs of mandamus was declared unconstitutional by Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), one of the seminal cases in American law. Thus, the Judiciary Act of 1789 was the first act of Congress to be partially invalidated by the Supreme Court.
The Judiciary Act of 1789 included the Alien Tort Statute, now codified as , which provides jurisdiction in federal courts over lawsuits by aliens for torts in violation of the law of nations or treaties of the United States.
References
External links
"Judiciary Act of 1789"