The First Decade of the Supreme Court of the United States

Abstract

OR eleven months after the United States of America came into existence on March 4, I789, it possessed only two branches of government, a legislative and an executive. For eleven months it lacked the third branch-the judicial; and this in spite of the fact that on the very next day after the new Senate organized with a quorum, the first bill to be introduced was the Judiciary Bill-Senate No. i. It was six months before the bill became law and before President Washington could appoint the members of the first Supreme Court. What caused this delay? As is well known, while the Constitution provided that there should be one Supreme and inferior Courts as Congress may from time to time ordain and establish, the composition of the Supreme Court and the existence or non-existence of any inferior courts and the extent of their jurisdiction were left entirely to Congress to decide. Many who favored the Constitution, as well as many who were opposed, both in the Federal Convention and in the State ratifying conventions had expressed the view that it would be better for Congress to leave to the State courts the execution of Federal rights and powers, with an appeal to the Supreme Court; and from April 7, the date when the Senate appointed its committee to organize the judicial system, this was the great controversial question. On June 12, 1789, the committee reported a bill, chiefly drafted by Oliver Ellsworth and William Paterson, providing for a Supreme Court of six Judges and for Federal district and circuit courts to try criminal and admiralty cases and suits between citizens of different States. Over this bill, the debate raged in the Senate and in the House for three months. The crucial point was whether there should be any inferior Federal courts (except possibly in admiralty), and if there were to be any such courts, whether the Constitution required that they be vested with the full jurisdiction which the Constitution permitted, including cases arising under the laws and Constitution of the United States