Creation of the Federal Courts

Article III secured two of the great structural principles of the Constitution: federalism and separation of powers. Section 1 provided for two types of courts: a "Supreme Court" and "such inferior Courts as Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." ²⁰ The former became the nation's highest appellate court (it heard cases brought on appeal from other federal and state courts); the latter were to operate as the trial courts of the federal system. Federalists wanted to specify the structure of the lower federal courts explicitly; Antifederalists proposed that state courts administer federal trials. They agreed by not agreeing, leaving the entire matter of the lower federal courts to Congress.

Article III conferred jurisdiction (the authority by which a court can hear a legal claim) in two categories. The first was based on subject and extended to all cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States, as well as cases of admiralty and maritime. The second category depended on the nature of the parties in legal conflict. This jurisdiction included controversies between citizens of different states, between a state and citizens of another state, between states, and between a state and the nation.

Most of the delegates appreciated that the rule of law in a republican government required an independent judiciary that was only indirectly accountable. The president was given authority to appoint federal judges with the advice and consent of the

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Senate. Once commissioned, these judges would hold office during good behavior, and their salaries could not be diminished. The framers had not the slightest intention of making the judges democratically accountable; on the contrary, they had to be shielded from popular impulses because under the departmental theory, they dispensed justice, rather than made law. Should judges, however, engage in "high Crimes and Misdemeanors," the framers specified that they could be removed through impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 665