How is the U.S. judicial system organized to ensure justice?
On February 2, 1790, the U.S. Supreme Court met publicly for the first time. Of the six justices that President George Washington had appointed to the Court, however, only four had managed to reach New York City, the new nation’s temporary capital. The other two justices missed the Court’s first term entirely.
The courtroom was crowded with onlookers as the justices arrived. Most of the observers were more impressed with the “elegance” of the justices’ robes than with the judicial business at hand. In truth, there was no business. The Supreme Court’s docket, or list of cases, was empty and would remain so for the next three years. After dealing with a few housekeeping chores, the justices ended their first session on February 10.
The Constitution, which had been ratified only two years earlier, clearly established the Supreme Court as part of a federal judiciary. Article III, Section I begins, “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court.” However, the framers of the Constitution were divided as to whether the new nation needed any inferior, or lower, courts. Some delegates to the Constitutional Convention argued that the state courts were more than able to deal with the nation’s legal business. Others worried that a new set of federal courts would be too expensive.
In the end, the delegates compromised. The Constitution does not require the creation of inferior courts. However, it does permit “such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.”
Congress promptly moved to create these “inferior courts” by enacting the Judiciary Act of 1789. This law established a federal judicial system made up of district and circuit courts and specified the kinds of cases the courts could try. It laid out the qualifications and responsibilities of federal judges, district attorneys, and other judicial officials. It set the number of Supreme Court justices at six and established the principle that decisions of the Supreme Court are final and cannot be appealed.
With relatively minor changes, the federal judicial system created in 1789 is the same system we have today. The number and levels of courts has grown with the nation, and three more justices have been added to the Supreme Court to deal with its growing caseload. This chapter examines the federal judicial system and its relationship to state systems and to ordinary citizens seeking justice.