93 development of judicial power under the Constitution concerns much more than an understanding of the text of Article III, because the written constitution did not wholly determine the way in which judicial power would be exercised in the United States. And the power of the Supreme Court in the American polity today can only be explained by the acceptance by the people of the United States of the idea that the Court is the final interpreter of the law. Our starting point is, of course, the basic tenets of judicial power laid down by Article III of the Constitution. Article III set up the most novel creation of the American Constitution, the Supreme Court. In creating the Supreme Court the framers of the Constitution recognized the need for a national court to implement national interests. As Alexander Hamilton stated in The Federalist No. 22, “[A]ll nations have found it necessary to establish one court paramount to the rest — possessing a general superintendance, and authorized to settle and declare in the last resort, an uniform rule of civil justice —. This is the more necessary,” Hamilton continued, “where the frame of the government is so compounded, that the laws of the whole are in danger of being contravened by the laws of the parts.” Article III also sets out the tenure of federal judges and protection for their compensation. Having made the decision that the judicial branch would be separate fromthe legislative and executive branches of government, thus adhering to Montesquieu’s belief that “there is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers,” the framers stipulated that judges would hold their offices during good behavior. To ensure further the independence of the judges the Constitution required that they receive a compensation that “shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.” Thus protected from reductions in salary, the judges would not be beholden to the legislature. (The framers did not anticipate the current problem of judges’ real earnings being ravaged by inflation.) Having established a national court. Article III of the Constitution vested the judicial power of the United States in this “one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may fromtime to time ordain and establish.” The substantive jurisdiction of the federal courts extended “to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority.” Certain categories of cases that would come within the purview of the federal courts were enumerated; among them are controversies between a state and citizens of a different state and those between citizens of different states — now known as “diversity” jurisdiction. Article III described those cases in which the Supreme Court would have original jurisdiction and stated that in all other cases the Supreme Court would have appellate jurisdiction, subject to the exceptions and regulations Congress might make. While these clauses appear to be very straightforward, they raised a number
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