The Supreme Court

Article III of the Constitution vests “the judicial Power of the United States” in “one supreme Court” and in such lower courts as Congress creates, and provides that judges hold office during good behavior. Beyond that, the framers left the details to Congress. Establishing a federal judiciary was a high priority: the first bill introduced in the Senate became the Judiciary Act of 1789, which divided the country into thirteen judicial districts and three circuits and created a Supreme Court of a Chief Justice and five associate justices.

The Court first assembled in New York in February 1790. For most of its first century the justices also had to “ride circuit,” traveling to hold court in the districts — a burden they complained about, along with the Court’s limited prestige.

The Court hears a small number of cases directly (its original jurisdiction, such as disputes between states) and many more on appeal from lower federal courts and state courts on questions of federal law. Its most important power, judicial review — the authority to declare laws and government actions unconstitutional — is not stated in the Constitution. Chief Justice Marshall claimed it in Marbury v. Madison (1803), and it has since become accepted.

The Court’s power has limits. It cannot enforce its rulings on its own and depends on the other branches to carry them out. Its justices are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate; Congress sets its size and much of its jurisdiction; and constitutional amendments can override its interpretations.

Under Marshall (1801–1835) the Court established judicial review and a broad reading of federal power in cases such as McCulloch v. Maryland. Its decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), denying that Black Americans could be citizens, helped bring on the Civil War and was overturned by the Fourteenth Amendment. After Reconstruction the Court narrowed civil rights protections, upholding segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). In the 1930s it struck down early New Deal laws, then accepted broader federal economic power. Under Chief Justice Earl Warren (1953–1969) it ended legal school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education and expanded the rights of criminal defendants and voters. Since then it has remained at the center of national debates — over abortion, elections, gun rights, and the scope of federal and presidential power.

The number of justices changed six times before settling at nine in 1869. Since 1790 there have been only seventeen Chief Justices, and justices have served an average of about sixteen years.