Which US President fired all the federal judges right after taking office?

Answer 1

None. The closest we've come to an event like that is when Thomas Jefferson assumed the Presidency in 1801. A Federalist Congress serving under former President John Adams passed The Judiciary Act of 1801, which reorganized the federal court system, adding 16 new Circuit judges to relieve the Supreme Court justices of their circuit-riding duties. Adams nominated Federalists to all 16 positions, leading to accusations of court-packing.

The Democratic-Republicans (originally called anti-Federalists) held the majority in Congress under the new Jefferson administration, and soon repealed the Judiciary Act, effectively terminating the new judges to prevent the Federalists from gaining more control of the judiciary. This was the only way Congress could legitimately get rid of Article III federal judges, who are entitled to serve lifetime commissions unless they commit impeachable offenses.

The old Congress passed another act during its lame duck session, The Organic Act of the District of Columbia of 1801, which established Washington, DC, as an independent federal territory. One provision of the legislation was that President Adams could appoint an unspecified number of justices of the peace, low-level judicial workers, to serve the needs of the newly incorporated District of Columbia.

Two days before leaving office, President Adams nominated 42 Federalists to fill these positions (these men later became known as the "Midnight Judges"). The Senate approved the nominations the day before Adams' administration ended, and John Marshall, then Secretary of State (and Supreme Court Chief Justice, as of February 1801) stayed late recording and sealing the commissions. Unfortunately, he was unable to deliver them before Thomas Jefferson took office. Jefferson found the undelivered commissions sitting on a desk in the Secretary of State's office, and decided 42 justices of the peace was entirely too many. He immediately eliminated twelve positions, then appointed members of his own party to five of the remaining thirty judgeships.

Four of the seventeen men who lost their opportunities filed suit in the US Supreme Court in an effort to compel Secretary of State James Madison to deliver their commissions so they could take office. This lead to the landmark case Marbury v. Madison,(1803).


For more information about the Midnight Judges and Marbury v. Madison, see Related Questions, below.