Saturday, September 21, 2019
The Judicial Act of 1789
As we learned in class, the Constitution was quite vague about how the judicial system should be set up and how much power it should have. In 1789, Congress passed the Judicial Act to establish the three-tier federal court system we still abide by today. In fact, the three court system is based on the precedent set by the British. However, the British system had the three courts independently operating and responsible for different crimes (private law, criminal law, and equality). One of the biggest arguments over the Judicial Act was how much power should be bestowed to the court. Many people feared a strong federal government. However, over the years, the Supreme Court has continually expanded its power (as seen by Marbury vs. Madison). While it may seem illogical today, when this Act was passed people did not even want the federal government to be able to override state laws. Today, this is an important part of making sure that every state is fair and equal to its citizens. This Act was monuental in setting a base that has since expanded and grown into the court system we know today.
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Do you know why the British system divides the different crimes into different courts? Why the US decided to combine them all into one court? Its an interesting idea because maybe if the court was divided by certain crimes more cases would get reviewed and more change would be made. Also, you make an interesting point about how the three-tier court system gave the supreme court more power! By establishing that for cases to make it to the supreme court they would have to go through state courts, it implies that the state courts are at a lower level than the supreme court. This also gives the supreme court the power to invalidate lower court rulings, something we consider normal but as you pointed out, something people back then were probably very afraid of.
ReplyDeleteYou make an interesting point about how the Supreme Court has expanded its power as a result of the Judiciary Act of 1789. Fortunately, even though Marbury v. Madison did lead to the Supreme Court's later expansion of power, it also prevented the Supreme Court from expanding too much. In Marbury v. Madison, John Marshall declared that the part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that allowed the Supreme Court to issue orders affecting the other branches of government (like Congress or the executive branch) was unconstitutional as this source describing Marbury v. Madison explains: http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/interactive_constitution/scc/scc20.htm. Had John Marshall not declared this part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 unconstitutional in Marbury v. Madison, it would be possible that today, the Supreme Court could directly control the other branches of federal government (rather than declaring laws and executive orders as unconstitutional), which would mean the Supreme Court would be even more powerful than it already is today.
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