By creating intermediate federal courts of appeal, this act constituted the first permanent and major alteration of the federal judiciary since 1789. The Judiciary Act of 1789 created federal trial courts, called district and circuit courts. Except for a limited appellate jurisdiction granted to the circuit courts, the United States Supreme Court was the only federal appeals court. In addition to their Supreme Court duties, justices were burdened with the arduous task of circuit riding. The original idea that Supreme Court justices should be brought into contact with the people by riding circuit remained politically popular for most of the century. Although lessened in 1869 (see Judiciary Act of 1869), the circuit riding burden remained until the Judiciary Act of 1891 eliminated it.
As the nation and its judicial business grew, Congress considered relieving the Supreme Court of its growing appellate burden as early as 1848. Concern for states' rights and the threat of an increased federal judicial presence scuttled the idea, but it was revived after the Civil War (see State Sovereignty and States' Rights). Increases in original and removal jurisdiction of lower federal courts, together with the proliferation of litigation resulting from the rapid industrialization of the nation and the beginnings of a regulatory movement, increased the workload of the Supreme Court. These phenomena are reflected in the number of cases coming to the Supreme Court for review: 1860 term, 310 cases; 1870 term, 636 cases; 1880 term, 1,212 cases; and 1890 term, 1,816 cases. Fears of federal‐state judicial conflict were finally overcome by the mounting caseload and nearly unanimous sentiment of the legal community.
The Judiciary Act of 1891 established nine appellate courts staffed with new judges. Rather than merge the old circuit courts, whose limited appellate jurisdiction was now abolished, with the district courts, the 1891 act retained and even strengthened the circuit courts by providing for the appointment of an additional judge for each circuit court. Twenty years later, in 1911, they were finally eliminated and their work transferred to the district courts, thereby making a single tier of federal trial courts.
The new Circuit Courts of Appeal, renamed Courts of Appeal in 1948, were staffed with three judges each, two of whom would constitute a quorum. Their judgment was to be final in diversity cases, that is, those suits in which the parties were from different states, and those involving federal patent, revenue, and admiralty laws. In these areas, the Circuit Courts of Appeal could certify a division of opinion to the Supreme Court. Congress anticipated that a considerable portion of the Supreme Court's docket would be shifted to new appellate courts. Although pending cases were not transferred to the new appellate tribunals, the docketing of new cases in the Supreme Court revealed the dramatic change: 1891 term, 379 cases; and 1892 term, 275 cases.
The docket of the Supreme Court had been substantially pruned, but the right of appeal was preserved in many cases, including those involving more than one thousand dollars. Even when circuit judgments were final, the Supreme Court had discretionary authority to review the decisions. Additionally, a right of review from the district and old circuit courts was extended or maintained in the following areas: jurisdictional questions; prize cases; convictions for capital or infamous crimes; and cases involving constitutional questions. Finally, the right of appeal to the Supreme Court was retained in cases coming from the highest courts of the states. Not until Congress enacted the Judiciary Act of 1925 did the Supreme Court gain substantial control of its own docket.
Since 1891 the jurisdiction of the appellate courts has been changed and the original nine courts of appeal have become eleven, but the basic structure put in place by the 1891 act continues to characterize the federal judiciary today.
See also Judicial Power and Jurisdiction.
Bibliography
- Edwin C. Surrency, History of the Federal Courts (1987)
— John E. Semonche
