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Federal Courts and Their Records
The Federal court system began in 1789 when the U.S. Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789. At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the delegates had voted by a narrow margin to establish only a supreme court and to prohibit the establishment of any Federal trial courts. Then, in a move that would forever change the structure of the American judicial system, James Madison proposed a compromise that would leave to Congress the question of whether or not to establish Federal trial courts. Of course, Madison’s compromise made it into the final version of the U.S. Constitution, which provided for a supreme court and such trial courts, if any, as Congress should establish.
When the first Congress met in 1789, it resolved the issue by creating a system of Federal trial courts that would function alongside the existing state trial courts. A Federal district court was established as a trial court in each state. The creation of national trial courts to operate simultaneously with existing state trial courts was, at the time, a new concept which had not been tried before.
As the population grew, some states were divided into two or more Federal court districts. There are presently eighty-nine districts in the fifty states. The district courts usually had jurisdiction over Federal civil and equity cases, with limited criminal jurisdiction until 1866. Their jurisdiction has included admiralty, trade, bankruptcy, land seizure, naturalization, and, after 1815, non-capital criminal cases.
Three Federal circuits were established to cover the whole country in 1789. The number gradually expanded to nine by 1866. Federal circuit courts had jurisdiction over all matters (especially criminal) covered by Federal law; they also had some appellate functions from the district courts. In 1891, circuit courts of appeals were created to hear appeals from the district courts; they had the same boundaries (or circuits) as the circuit courts. The original circuit courts retained limited powers that often overlapped those of the district courts. In 1911, the original circuit courts were abolished.
The records of most pre-1950 Federal district and circuit courts have been collected by the National Archives regional archives.
