Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: The First US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States didn't always have its first sitting on the first Monday in October, and it didn't always sit in Washington, DC at its current location. The Court held its inaugural session on February 2, 1790, and it convened at the Royal Exchange in New York City. But there were no cases on its docket and it had little pressing business, so the inaugural term lasted for only eight days. The court would not issue its first decision until August 1791.
The court had its origins during the debate over the division of powers between the legislative and executive departments conducted by delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention. That body first established the role of the national judiciary. It created what was intended to be a "third branch" of government. In the English tradition, courts and judges were considered to be an extension of royal authority. To this day, criminal proceedings in most commonwealth countries are prosecuted in the name of the sovereign and names of cases in criminal matters begin with the Latin name for the Queen (Regina) or King (Rex). But the delegates to the Constitutional Congress wanted nothing to do with Kings or Queens. Some delegates argued that national laws could be enforced by state courts, while others, including James Madison, called for the creation of a national judicial authority consisting of various tribunals chosen by the national legislature. It was also proposed that the judiciary should have a role in checking the executive power and even the power to exercise a veto or to revise laws. But in the end the Framers of the Constitution reached a compromise. They set out on;u a general outline of the judiciary, and vested federal judicial power in "one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." They were not more specific than this in setting out the exact powers and prerogatives of the Supreme Court nor of the organization of the Judicial Branch as a whole.
That would be set out later when the 1st United States Congress provided for the detailed organization of a federal judiciary through the Judiciary Act of 1789. The Supreme Court, the country's highest judicial tribunal, was to sit in the nation's Capital, and would initially be composed of a Chief Justice and five associate justices. The act divided the country into judicial districts, which were, in turn, organized into circuits. The justices were required to "ride circuit," and hold circuit court twice a year in their assigned judicial district.
Immediately after signing the Act into law, President George Washington nominated the members of the first Supreme Court of the United States. His nominee for Chief Justice was John Jay, the man who had negotiated and signed of the Treaty of Paris of 1783. Jay had alse served as the second Governor of New York, and he had directed U.S. foreign policy for much of the 1780s. It was also essential that he had been an important leader of the Federalist Party after the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788.
To fill the positions of Associate Justices (there were five at the time), Washington nominated John Rutledge, William Cushing, Robert H. Harrison, James Wilson, and John Blair Jr. as associate justices. All six were confirmed by the Senate on September 26, 1789. But Harrison declined to serve. In his place, Washington later nominated James Iredell.
The Supreme Court held its inaugural session February 2-10, 1790, at the Royal Exchange in New York City, which was then the capital. A second session was held there in August 1790. The earliest sessions of the Court were devoted to organizational matters. The first cases did not reach the court until 1791. When the national capital moved to Philadelphia in 1790, the Supreme Court did so as well. After initially meeting at Independence Hall, the Court established its chambers at the City Hall.
Typically, the eras of the court are named for the Chief Justice who presided. The "Jay Court" refers to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1789 to 1795, when John Jay served as the first Chief Justice of the United States. Jay served as Chief Justice until his resignation in 1795, when John Rutledge took office as a recess appointment.
The Court's business in its first three years mostly involved the establishment of rules and procedure; reading of commissions and admitting attorneys to the bar. The Justices' duties in riding circuit included presiding over cases in the circuit courts of the various federal judicial districts. The court as a whole heard only four cases during Jay's chief justiceship.
During his tenure, Jay established an early precedent for the what became known as Judicial independence (freedom from interference by government). In 1790, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton wrote to Jay requesting an advisory opinion on proposed legislation supported by the president. Jay replied that the Court's business was restricted to ruling on the constitutionality of cases being tried before it and refused to allow it to take a position either for or against the legislation. This established a precedent that has continued since.
The justices represented every region of the country. Washington strove for geographical balance in making his appointments. The Jay Court ended in 1795, when Jay resigned to become Governor of New York. Jay was replaced via recess appointment by John Rutledge, though Rutledge was denied confirmation by the Senate. Oliver Ellsworth became the third Chief Justice in 1796.
The Jay Court did not issue many major rulings. Its first important case was Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), in which the court held that the state of Georgia could be sued in federal court, establishing an important precedent that the states of the union do not constitute fully sovereign states. However, the Eleventh Amendment, ratified in 1795, granted states sovereign immunity from suits in federal court by citizens of another state.
John Jay was a supporter of a strong, centralized government. He had worked to ratify the United States Constitution in New York in 1788 and had been was a co-author of The Federalist Papers along with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Jay wrote five of the 85 papers. The Jay Court experienced a light workload, deciding just four cases over six years. In fact it was in 1794, while serving as Chief Justice, that Jay negotiated the highly controversial Jay Treaty with Britain. Jay received a handful of electoral votes in three of the first four presidential elections, but never undertook a serious bid for the presidency.
Jay served as the Governor of New York from 1795 to 1801. He had been a long time opponent of slavery, and later as Governor of New York he helped enact a law that provided for the gradual emancipation of slaves, and the institution of slavery was abolished in New York in Jay's lifetime. In the fina; days of President John Adams's administration, Jay was confirmed by the Senate for another term as Chief Justice, but he declined the position and retired to his farm in Westchester County, New York. He remained out of politics and died in May of 1829.