Introduction

The Judiciary Act of 1789, officially titled "An Act to Establish the Judicial Courts of the United States," was signed into law by President George Washington on September 24, 1789. Article III of the Constitution established a Supreme Court, but left to Congress the authority to create lower federal courts as needed. Principally authored by Senator Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, the Judiciary Act of 1789 established the structure and jurisdiction of the federal court system and created the position of attorney general. Although amended throughout the years by Congress, the basic outline of the federal court system established by the First Congress remains largely intact today.

Judiciary Act of 1789
United States Statutes at Large (1 Stat. 73)

Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America, Begun and Held at the City of New-York . . . . New York: F. Childs and J. Swaine, printers to the United States, 1789. Library of Congress Law Library.

Judiciary Act of 1789: Primary Documents in American History

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Introduction

Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America, Begun and Held at the City of New-York . . . . New York: F. Childs and J. Swaine, printers to the United States, 1789. Library of Congress Law Library.

[Photograph of portrait of Oliver Ellsworth, half-length, facing slightly right]. 1891. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

George Washington to United States Supreme Court, September 30, 1789. George Washington Papers. Library of Congress Manuscript Division.