Circuit Courts of Appeals

Congress established the federal circuit courts in the Judiciary Act of 1789 and divided the country into three circuits, each of which contained several states. The circuit courts performed both trial and appellate functions and, until 1869, were staffed by federal district court judges and by U.S. Supreme Court justices riding circuit. The difficulty of travel to many of the circuits made circuit riding a hardship, and the practice fell into disuse by the 1840s. The district judges were thus left to conduct business of both the districts and circuits, which made appellate duties impossible. Congress attempted to remedy the situation in the Judiciary Act of 1869 by creating a circuit judgeship in each of the then nine circuits.

As the jurisdiction of the federal courts expanded, the business of both the circuit and district courts increased, and the circuit judges attended mostly to trial work. This put pressure on the Supreme Court, as appellate review was either unavailable in the circuit courts or judges were reviewing their own work. Congress attempted a remedy in the Evarts Act in 1891 (see judiciary act of 1891), which established the United States circuit courts of appeals and transferred all appellate work to them. Congressional traditionalists, however, refused to abolish the old circuit courts, and the courts retained original trial jurisdiction over capital cases, tax cases, and diversity cases where the amount in controversy exceeded the district court's limit. Congress increasingly became convinced that the circuit courts were dispensable, and in a 1911 statute it made the district courts the exclusive federal trial courts. The circuit courts ceased to exist on 1 January 1912. The circuit courts of appeal were renamed the courts of appeal in 1948.

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See also Judicial Power and Jurisdiction; Lower Federal Courts

— Rayman L. Solomon

The Judiciary Act of 1789 set up a system of lower federal courts, under the Supreme Court of the United States. At the bottom were federal district courts, one per state except for Massachusetts and Virginia, which had two apiece because of their greater population. Between the Supreme Court and the district courts were three circuit courts of appeal, one for each of three circuits, or districts, each of which included several states. In 1789 the Southern Circuit included South Carolina and Georgia (North Carolina was added in 1790 after it entered the Union). In 1789 the Eastern Circuit contained New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire (Rhode Island and Vermont were added when they joined the Union in 1790 and 1791, respectively). The Middle Circuit included Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.

Until 1869 the circuit courts served both as trial courts and appellate courts; both federal district court judges and Supreme Court justices presided in these circuit courts. The judges and justices had to “ride circuit” in order to carry out their circuit court duties; that is, they had to travel from place to place, within the large area of the circuit, to hear cases and make decisions. In the early years of the United States, the judges and justices rode on horseback or in horse-drawn carriages.

Circuit riding was a great hardship, involving long hours of travel. The Supreme Court justices constantly complained to Congress, asking to be relieved of this heavy burden. In the Judiciary Act of 1869, Congress finally responded to their complaints. This law provided for the appointment of nine new circuit court judges, which relieved the Supreme Court justices of their ongoing circuit-riding duties. However, the law did require the justices to participate in circuit court duties once every two years.

The Judiciary Act of 1891 created, for the first time, the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, one for each of nine regions, or circuits, to hear cases on appeal from the lower courts. The old circuit courts were retained, but their duties were merged with the federal district courts. So the federal judiciary consisted of two trial courts (circuit and district courts) and two appellate courts (the Supreme Court and the new Circuit Courts of Appeals). The act eliminated the circuit-riding duties of Supreme Court justices and assigned three judges to each of the nine new Circuit Courts of Appeals. This relieved the burden on the Supreme Court, which until then had carried out most of the federal appellate court work. In 1911 Congress acted to eliminate the old circuit courts because they merely duplicated the work of the district courts, which were retained as the trial courts of the federal judiciary. In 1948 the Circuit Courts of Appeals were given a new name, which they retain today, the Courts of Appeals.

See also Courts of Appeals