Early government setup: Judiciary Act

On September 24, 1789, President George Washington signed the Judiciary Act of 1789 after the First Congress completed the statute in New York City. The law created a Supreme Court, district courts, circuit courts, and the office of attorney general under the new Constitution. John Jay soon took office as the first Chief Justice, giving the federal judiciary an operational structure for the first time.

The Judiciary Act addressed a constitutional gap left by Article III, which established a federal judiciary but did not specify how lower courts or appellate review would function. Senators and representatives had to balance federal authority against state judicial independence while deciding how much power national judges should wield over commerce, admiralty, and federal crimes. The statute therefore turned an abstract constitutional provision into a working judicial system without abolishing the importance of state courts.

The Judiciary Act made possible the first sessions of the federal courts in 1789 and 1790 and gave institutional shape to the Supreme Court that later decided Marbury v. Madison and other landmark cases. It also helped define the separation of powers by providing the judicial branch with concrete officers, jurisdictions, and procedures under the Constitution.