Judiciary Act of 1869

The Judiciary Act of 1869 (16 Stat. 44), also called the Circuit Judges Act of 1869, is a United States statute that stipulated that the makeup of the United States Supreme Court would consist of the Chief Justice and eight associate justices, any six of whom would constitute a quorum.

In addition it stipulated that each of the nine circuit courts of the United States would have a circuit judge appointed who would reside in that locale and have the same power and jurisdiction as the Supreme Court justice assigned to the circuit. It was stipulated that the Chief Justice and each of the associate justices had the duty to sit at least one term in the circuit every two years. The circuit court could be held by the circuit judge, the Supreme Court justice, or the two could hold the court together, in which case the Supreme Court justice would preside. Up until this time, circuit courts were normally only staffed by district judges and Supreme Court justices "riding circuit."

The salary of the circuit court judge-ships created was set at $5,000 a year. In addition, the act stipulated that federal judges (including Supreme Court justices) who had served for ten years or more would receive a pension upon their retirement. The pension was set at the salary of the judge at the time of retirement. A judge had to be at least seventy years old at the time of retirement.

There were eight justices serving on the Supreme Court at the time the act was enacted. The Judicial Circuits Act of 1866 had reduced the Court from ten to seven justices, but the reduction was to occur only when the serving justices retired. As only two seats were vacated between 1866 and 1869, only one new seat was implemented with the creation of the act.

The act was the third time that Congress had created circuit judge-ships. The first time was the soon-repealed Judiciary Act of 1801, and the second was a single circuit judgeship in the frontier state of California which only lasted from 1855 to 1863.

Though the law did not abolish circuit riding by the justices of the Supreme Court, it significantly reduced the burden by requiring each justice to attend circuit court in each district within his circuit only once every two years. Circuit court riding would later be abolished by the Judiciary Act of 1891. The circuit courts themselves were abolished by the Judicial Code of 1911, which transferred their trial jurisdiction to the U.S. district courts.