Judiciary Act of 1801

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The United States Judiciary Act of 1801

The Act reduced the number of seats on the Supreme Court from six to five, effective upon the next vacancy in the Court. No such vacancy occurred during the brief period the Act was in effect, so that the size of the Court remained unchanged.

It reorganized the circuit courts, doubling them in number from three to six, and created three new circuit judgeships for each circuit (except the sixth, which received only one circuit judge). In addition to creating new lifetime posts for Federalist judges, the circuit judgeships were intended to relieve the justices of the Supreme Court from the hardships of riding circuit (that is, sitting as judges on the circuit courts). The circuit judgeships were abolished in 1802, and the justices continued to ride circuit until 1869.

It also reorganized the district courts, creating ten additional courts. These courts were to be presided over by the existing district judges in most cases. In addition to subdividing several of the existing district courts, it created the District of Ohio which covered the Northwest and Indiana Territories, and the District of Potomac from the District of Columbia and pieces of Maryland and Virginia, which was the first time a federal judicial district crossed state lines. However, the district courts for Kentucky and Tennessee were abolished, and their judges reassigned to the circuit courts.

In the nineteen days between passage of this Act and the conclusion of his administration, President Adams quickly filled as many of the newly created circuit judgeships as possible. The new judges were known as the "Midnight Judges" because Adams was said to be signing their appointments at midnight prior to President Thomas Jefferson's inauguration. (Actually, only three commissions were signed on his last day.) The famous Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison involved one of these "midnight" appointments, although it was an appointment to a judgeship of the District of Columbia, which was authorized under a different Act of Congress, not the Judiciary Act.

The Act proved ineffective in prolonging Federalist control: upon its repeal, the Federalist judges in the newly created courts found themselves out of work, their positions abolished.