maeva marcus associates, who would meet twice a year at the capital city, beginning on the first Monday in the months of February and August. Section 3 of the act specified that the lowest rung of courts in the new system would be district courts, each to be presided over by one judge who would live in the district.4 Section 4 created the intermediate tier, circuit courts, each of which would consist of any two Supreme Court justices and the district judge from the state in which the circuit court was sitting to compose the bench.5 This was conceived as a cost-cutting measure. Appointing additional judges to preside at the circuit courts would have increased the expense of the whole system and made it less palatable to the citizenry.6 The circuit courts were grouped into three circuits: the eastern, the middle, and the southern.7 Section 5 directed the circuit courts to meet twice a year in each district, once in the spring and once in the fall.8 Because the Supreme Court met in February and August, the justices were free to “ride circuit” between those sittings. The Constitution and the Judiciary Act are the sources for the division of jurisdiction among the tiers of federal courts. Article III of the Constitution extended the judicial power “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.” The Constitution also enumerated certain categories of cases that would come within the purview of the federal courts, including cases involving ambassadors or other public ministers and cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, and controversies between a state and citizens of a different state and those between citizens of different states – now known as “diversity” 4 Each of the thirteen states and the territories of Maine and Kentucky were considered districts. Judiciary Act of 1789, U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 1, p. 73, section 3. For a discussion of the genesis of the Judiciary Act of 1789, see Marcus, Maeva (ed.) 1992 pp. 22-38. 5 In 1793, realizing that this circuit duty was proving too onerous for the justices, Congress passed a new act providing that only one Supreme Court justice was necessary to hold each circuit court. U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 1, p. 333, section 1. 6 Winning the support of citizens motivated many of the decisions made by the founding members of the new government, because a real possibility existed that state loyalties would undermine the federal government. 7 Judiciary Act of 1789, U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 1, p. 73, section 4. 8 Ibid., section 5. 197
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