Judiciary Act of 1789 is an act establishing the organization of the U.S. federal court
system, which had been sketched only in general terms in the U.S. Constitution.
The act established a three-part judiciary—made up of district
courts, circuit courts, and the Supreme
Court—and outlined the structure and jurisdiction of each branch.
The Judiciary Act of 1789,
officially titled “An Act to Establish the Judicial Courts of the United
States,” was principally authored by Senators Oliver
Ellsworth and William Paterson and signed into law by
Pres. George Washington on Sept. 24, 1789. The act's creators, by essentially
all accounts, viewed it as a work in progress. Although indeed amended
throughout the years, the basic outline it provided has remained largely intact.
The act divided the
country into districts with one court and one judge in each, along with
attorneys responsible for civil and criminal actions in their districts. The
act also created the office of attorney general of the United States; the
attorney general, a member of the cabinet, is appointed by the president and is
head of the Department of Justice.
Circuit courts—which make
up the middle tier of the federal court system—were created to serve as
principal trial courts. They also exercise limited appellate jurisdiction. A
local district judge and two Supreme Court justices preside over the circuit
courts.
The act established that
the Supreme Court would be composed of one chief justice and five associate
justices and that all decisions of the Supreme Court would be final. The act
also vested in the Supreme Court the power to settle disputes between states
and provided for mandatory Supreme Court review of the final judgments of the
highest court of any state in cases “where is drawn in question the validity of
a treaty or statute of the United States and the decision is against its
validity” or “where is drawn in question the validity of a statute of any state
on the ground of its being repugnant to the Constitution, treaties or laws of
the United States, and the decision is in favor of its validity.” In Cohens
v. Virginia (1821) the Supreme Court reaffirmed its right under the
Judiciary Act to review all state court judgments in cases arising under the
federal Constitution or a law of the United States.
