Judiciary Act of 1789

Article III created a Supreme Court and left everything else to Congress. One of the first laws of the First Congress, drafted mainly by Senator Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut and signed by George Washington on September 24, 1789, filled in the design. It set the Supreme Court at six justices, created thirteen district courts, one for each state plus Maine and Kentucky, which were then parts of Massachusetts and Virginia, and grouped them into three circuits.

The act created no separate appeals judges. Instead circuit courts were staffed by a district judge and two Supreme Court justices, who traveled the country riding circuit, a grueling duty that lasted in some form until 1911. The act also created the office of Attorney General, U.S. attorneys to prosecute federal crimes in each district, and U.S. marshals to enforce court orders. Its Section 25 let the Supreme Court review state court decisions that rejected federal claims, a foundation of national judicial supremacy.

Much of the structure it created survives. Federal districts still follow state lines, and the offices of Attorney General, U.S. attorney, and marshal continue. One provision became famous when the Supreme Court struck it down in Marbury v. Madison in 1803, holding that Section 13 unconstitutionally expanded the Court's original jurisdiction, the first time the Court invalidated an act of Congress.