Okla-homey
2/1/2007, 08:08 AM
Feb 1, 1790: First session of the U.S. Supreme Court
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6913/cccccccccccccccsealofthey3.png
217 years ago today, in the old Royal Exchange Building on New York City's Broad Street, the Supreme Court of the United States met for the first time, with Chief Justice John Jay of New York presiding.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/22/cccccccccccccccccjohnjadt9.jpg
John Jay. At 44, he remains the youngest Chief Justice ever.
In September 1789, the Judiciary Act was passed, implementing Article III by providing for six justices who would serve on the court for life. The same day, President George Washington appointed John Jay to preside as chief justice, and John Rutledge of South Carolina, William Cushing of Massachusetts, John Blair of Virginia, Robert Harrison of Maryland, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania to serve as associate justices. Two days later, all six appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
It is noteworthy that Washington was careful to appoint justices from the then six most populous states and carefully avoided appointing more than one from each.
The U.S. Supreme Court is the only court established by Article III of the U.S. Constitution, which took effect in March 1789. The Supreme Court later grew into the most powerful judicial body in the world in terms of its central place in the U.S. political order. In times of constitutional crisis, for better or worse, it always played a definitive role in resolving the great issues of the time.
US Constitution Article III:
The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a Compensation which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.
The Supreme Court holds both original and appellate jurisdiction, with its appellate jurisdiction accounting for most of the Court's caseload. The court's original jurisdiction is narrowly focused, as defined in Article III, Section 2:
"In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction"
The court's appellate jurisdiction encompasses "all cases" within the scope of Article III, but is subject to limitation by acts of Congress under the Exceptions Clause in Article III and by the discretion of the Court (IOW, sometimes the Court chooses not to hear or decide a case for prudential reasons and simply won't hear it -- legalistas call that "the justiciability doctrine" and it gives first-year law students fits trying to find order or a pattern in it. Bottomline is, if they want to hear a case, they'll find a way. If they don't, they won't, and there's nothing anyone under Heaven can do about it.
As you've seen, the United States Constitution does not specify the size of the Supreme Court; instead, Congress has the power to fix the number of Justices. As stated above, the total number of Justices was set at six by the Judiciary Act of 1789. As the country grew geographically, the number of Justices steadily increased to correspond with the growing number of judicial circuits.
The court was expanded to seven members in 1807, nine in 1837 and ten in 1863. In 1866, however, Congress wished to deny President Andrew Johnson any Supreme Court appointments, and therefore passed the Judicial Circuits Act, which provided that the next three Justices to retire would not be replaced; thus, the size of the Court would eventually reach seven by attrition. Consequently, one seat was removed in 1866 and a second in 1867.
Two years later, the Circuit Judges Act of 1869, the number of Justices was reset to nine (the Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices), where it has remained ever since.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1152/cccccccccccccc800pxpictcg7.jpg
The Court was situated in various places in the US Capitol building until 1935 when it got these cool digs across the street.
The Switch In Time That Saved Nine...or How the Court Drove a Stake in the Heart of "States Rights" and Redefined Federalism
In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to expand the Court with his Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937; his plan would have allowed the President to appoint one new and additional justice for every justice who reached the age of seventy but did not retire from the bench, until the Court reached a maximum size of fifteen justices.
Ostensibly, this was to ease the burdens of the docket on the elderly judges, but it was widely believed that the Democrat President's actual purpose was to add Justices who would favor his New Deal policies, which had been routinely and universally ruled unconstitutional by the Court. This plan, referred to often as the Court Packing Plan, failed in Congress.
The Court, fearing FDR however, moved from its opposition to Roosevelt's New Deal programs, rendering the President's effort moot. After this scare by FDR's White House, just about every New Deal program FDR wanted overcame Constitutional challenge and was ruled okey-dokey by the Court!
Remember, the same nine guys who had previously said "no-go" on every FDR initiative expanding the power of Congress and the White House to have their way over the states, had suddenly experienced a Constitutional "change of heart." After 1937, they began granting the Court's imprimatur to FDR's schemes in every New Deal era case that came before them -- mostly because they were afraid of having their power diluted and becoming irrelevant! That's why its called the "Switch in Time That Saved Nine."
Roosevelt's long tenure in the White House (3.5 presidential terms in office) allowed him to appoint eight Justices to the Supreme Court and promote one Associate Justice to Chief Justice.
In the opinion of your correspondent, this particular episode in SCOTUS history is more responsible for the demise of "states rights" and the iron grip of federalism than the impact and repercussions of the Civil War. After 1937, with rare exceptions during the Rehnquist Era of the modern Court, Congressional and Executive agency power over states has been relatively unfettered.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4848/ccccccccccccscotus20062sk6.jpg
The Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States as of 2006. Top row (left to right): Stephen G. Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Samuel A. Alito. Bottom row (left to right): Anthony M. Kennedy, John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Antonin G. Scalia, and David H. Souter.
Seven of the current justices of today's Court were appointed by Republican Presidents, while two were nominated by a Democrat. In legal circles, it is popularly accepted that Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito compose the Court's conservative wing. Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer are generally thought of as the Court's liberal wing. Justice Kennedy is considered a moderate conservative, who is most likely to be the swing vote that determines the outcome of close cases.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2452/aaaaaaaaaaascaliaaa6.jpg
Your correspondent's numba one justice is Antonin Scalia. Love him or hate him, you gotta give it up for the fact he is widely acknowledged as the best writer on the Court since Oliver Wendell Holmes.
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2485/insane7zojz8.jpg
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6913/cccccccccccccccsealofthey3.png
217 years ago today, in the old Royal Exchange Building on New York City's Broad Street, the Supreme Court of the United States met for the first time, with Chief Justice John Jay of New York presiding.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/22/cccccccccccccccccjohnjadt9.jpg
John Jay. At 44, he remains the youngest Chief Justice ever.
In September 1789, the Judiciary Act was passed, implementing Article III by providing for six justices who would serve on the court for life. The same day, President George Washington appointed John Jay to preside as chief justice, and John Rutledge of South Carolina, William Cushing of Massachusetts, John Blair of Virginia, Robert Harrison of Maryland, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania to serve as associate justices. Two days later, all six appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
It is noteworthy that Washington was careful to appoint justices from the then six most populous states and carefully avoided appointing more than one from each.
The U.S. Supreme Court is the only court established by Article III of the U.S. Constitution, which took effect in March 1789. The Supreme Court later grew into the most powerful judicial body in the world in terms of its central place in the U.S. political order. In times of constitutional crisis, for better or worse, it always played a definitive role in resolving the great issues of the time.
US Constitution Article III:
The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a Compensation which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.
The Supreme Court holds both original and appellate jurisdiction, with its appellate jurisdiction accounting for most of the Court's caseload. The court's original jurisdiction is narrowly focused, as defined in Article III, Section 2:
"In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction"
The court's appellate jurisdiction encompasses "all cases" within the scope of Article III, but is subject to limitation by acts of Congress under the Exceptions Clause in Article III and by the discretion of the Court (IOW, sometimes the Court chooses not to hear or decide a case for prudential reasons and simply won't hear it -- legalistas call that "the justiciability doctrine" and it gives first-year law students fits trying to find order or a pattern in it. Bottomline is, if they want to hear a case, they'll find a way. If they don't, they won't, and there's nothing anyone under Heaven can do about it.
As you've seen, the United States Constitution does not specify the size of the Supreme Court; instead, Congress has the power to fix the number of Justices. As stated above, the total number of Justices was set at six by the Judiciary Act of 1789. As the country grew geographically, the number of Justices steadily increased to correspond with the growing number of judicial circuits.
The court was expanded to seven members in 1807, nine in 1837 and ten in 1863. In 1866, however, Congress wished to deny President Andrew Johnson any Supreme Court appointments, and therefore passed the Judicial Circuits Act, which provided that the next three Justices to retire would not be replaced; thus, the size of the Court would eventually reach seven by attrition. Consequently, one seat was removed in 1866 and a second in 1867.
Two years later, the Circuit Judges Act of 1869, the number of Justices was reset to nine (the Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices), where it has remained ever since.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1152/cccccccccccccc800pxpictcg7.jpg
The Court was situated in various places in the US Capitol building until 1935 when it got these cool digs across the street.
The Switch In Time That Saved Nine...or How the Court Drove a Stake in the Heart of "States Rights" and Redefined Federalism
In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to expand the Court with his Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937; his plan would have allowed the President to appoint one new and additional justice for every justice who reached the age of seventy but did not retire from the bench, until the Court reached a maximum size of fifteen justices.
Ostensibly, this was to ease the burdens of the docket on the elderly judges, but it was widely believed that the Democrat President's actual purpose was to add Justices who would favor his New Deal policies, which had been routinely and universally ruled unconstitutional by the Court. This plan, referred to often as the Court Packing Plan, failed in Congress.
The Court, fearing FDR however, moved from its opposition to Roosevelt's New Deal programs, rendering the President's effort moot. After this scare by FDR's White House, just about every New Deal program FDR wanted overcame Constitutional challenge and was ruled okey-dokey by the Court!
Remember, the same nine guys who had previously said "no-go" on every FDR initiative expanding the power of Congress and the White House to have their way over the states, had suddenly experienced a Constitutional "change of heart." After 1937, they began granting the Court's imprimatur to FDR's schemes in every New Deal era case that came before them -- mostly because they were afraid of having their power diluted and becoming irrelevant! That's why its called the "Switch in Time That Saved Nine."
Roosevelt's long tenure in the White House (3.5 presidential terms in office) allowed him to appoint eight Justices to the Supreme Court and promote one Associate Justice to Chief Justice.
In the opinion of your correspondent, this particular episode in SCOTUS history is more responsible for the demise of "states rights" and the iron grip of federalism than the impact and repercussions of the Civil War. After 1937, with rare exceptions during the Rehnquist Era of the modern Court, Congressional and Executive agency power over states has been relatively unfettered.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4848/ccccccccccccscotus20062sk6.jpg
The Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States as of 2006. Top row (left to right): Stephen G. Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Samuel A. Alito. Bottom row (left to right): Anthony M. Kennedy, John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Antonin G. Scalia, and David H. Souter.
Seven of the current justices of today's Court were appointed by Republican Presidents, while two were nominated by a Democrat. In legal circles, it is popularly accepted that Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito compose the Court's conservative wing. Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer are generally thought of as the Court's liberal wing. Justice Kennedy is considered a moderate conservative, who is most likely to be the swing vote that determines the outcome of close cases.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2452/aaaaaaaaaaascaliaaa6.jpg
Your correspondent's numba one justice is Antonin Scalia. Love him or hate him, you gotta give it up for the fact he is widely acknowledged as the best writer on the Court since Oliver Wendell Holmes.
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2485/insane7zojz8.jpg