What does the Constitution say about the structure and the power of the federal judiciary? What does it leave out? What holes did the Judiciary Act of 1789 fill in that structure?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Constitution authorizes a Supreme Court and any inferior courts Congress wishes to create. The federal court system we know today with its three tiers of district courts, circuit courts of appeals, and the Supreme Court was established by Congress in the Judiciary Act of 1789. The Constitution remains fairly silent about judicial power except to say that the Constitution is the highest law in the land and the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. One important judicial concept that was untouched in the Constitution was the power of judicial review, which gives the court authority to review and possibly overturn a law or government action on the basis of its constitutionality. Congress, in the Judiciary Act of 1789, established district courts with original jurisdiction over both criminal and civil cases for which one has federal standing; 13 circuit courts of appeal that have appellate jurisdiction over cases coming from the district courts; and the Supreme Court, which has both original and appellate jurisdiction.