Congress created the basic structure of the federal judiciary—district courts, circuit courts, and a six-justice Supreme Court—along with offices such as the Attorney General and U.S. Marshals, implementing Article III of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York City (then the national capital), marking the operational start of the new federal judiciary under the Constitution and Judiciary Act.
In its first published decision, the Court resolved a procedural issue about how writs of error (appeals) must be issued under federal statute, illustrating the Court’s early focus on jurisdiction and procedure.
Federal judges refused to carry out a pension-claims scheme subject to executive revision, helping establish that Congress cannot assign federal courts nonjudicial tasks incompatible with Article III judicial power (an early justiciability/separation-of-powers episode).
The Court held that Article III permitted a citizen of one state to sue another state in federal court, triggering intense political backlash over state sovereign immunity and directly prompting a constitutional amendment.
In an original-jurisdiction dispute, the Court empaneled a jury—an extremely rare event in Supreme Court history—highlighting early practice under Article III and the Court’s limited original docket.
Adopted in response to Chisholm, the Eleventh Amendment restricted federal judicial power over suits against a state by citizens of another state or foreign citizens, reshaping the Court’s jurisdiction and sovereign-immunity doctrine.
The Court held that the 1783 Treaty of Paris overrode conflicting Virginia law, reinforcing the supremacy of federal treaties and helping define the relationship between federal law and state enactments.
The Court ruled the federal carriage tax was not a “direct tax” requiring apportionment, an early, influential interpretation of Congress’s taxing power and constitutional limits on taxation.
The Court held the Constitution’s Ex Post Facto Clause applies to criminal, not civil, legislation—an early constitutional interpretation that shaped later due process and retroactivity debates.
In the final weeks of the Adams administration, Congress restructured the federal judiciary and created new judgeships (later associated with the “midnight judges”), intensifying partisan conflict over control of the courts.
The Jeffersonian Republican Congress repealed much of the 1801 reorganization, restoring the prior structure and setting up a direct test of congressional power over the federal courts’ organization.
The Court held it lacked authority to issue the requested writ because the relevant statutory grant conflicted with the Constitution, articulating the principle that courts may invalidate unconstitutional acts of Congress.
The Court sustained Congress’s 1802 restructuring (including the restoration of circuit riding), defusing an institutional confrontation and confirming broad legislative authority to reorganize lower federal courts.
Establishment of the Federal Judiciary and Early Supreme Court Decisions (1789–1803)
