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The Midnight Judges Act (also known as the Judiciary Act of 1801; 2 Stat. 89, and officially An act to provide for the more convenient organization of the Courts of the United States) expanded the federal judiciary of the United States. [1] The act was supported by the John Adams administration and the Federalist Party. [1]
Fourteen of the sixteen circuit court judges appointed by Adams were to positions created at the end of his tenure in office, in the Judiciary Act of 1801, 2 Stat. 89, which became known as the Midnight Judges Act. All of these offices were abolished by the repeal of this Act on July 1, 1802, by 2 Stat. 132.
Circuit riding was one of the responsibilities of U.S. Supreme Court justices during the Marshall Court (1801–1835). Under the Judiciary Act of 1801, the United States federal judicial districts were divided into six (and later seven) United States circuit courts—one for each justice.
The Marshall Court began in 1801, when President John Adams appointed Secretary of State John Marshall to replace the retiring Oliver Ellsworth.Marshall was nominated after former Chief Justice John Jay refused the position; many in Adams's party advocated the elevation of Associate Justice William Paterson, but Adams refused to nominate someone close to his intra-party rival, Alexander Hamilton.
Additionally, the District of Columbia judiciary would not exist until the passage of the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 under President John Adams. John Rutledge was appointed to the serve on the Supreme Court twice, first as associate justice and then, after a period of years off the Court, as chief justice.
In 1801, Congress attempted for the first time in its history to relieve the Supreme Court justices of this burden by enacting the Judiciary Act of 1801, commonly known as the Midnight Judges Act, but that proved to be highly controversial as the Act took effect with only 19 days remaining in John Adams's Federalist administration.
The Court lacked its own building until 1935; from 1791 to 1801, it met in Philadelphia's City Hall. The first Chief Justice of the United States was John Jay; the Court's first docketed case was Van Staphorst v. Maryland (1791), and its first recorded decision was West v. Barnes (1791). [2]
Stuart v. Laird, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 299 (1803), was a case decided by United States Supreme Court notably a week after its famous decision in Marbury v. Madison.. Stuart dealt with a judgment of a circuit judge whose position had been abolished by the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801.