Since the establishment of the federal courts in 1789, Congress has periodically reshaped the judiciary through...
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The power of the federal courts to hear cases and controversies is limited by the broad terms of Article III of the...
The management of the federal judiciary includes a variety of non-adjudicative tasks. At different times, executive...
Some cases heard by the federal courts have affected not only the parties involved and the legal questions at issue...
Sep 17 1787
At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the framers laid out a plan for a federal government composed of...
Sep 17 1787
Article III of the U.S. Constitution set forth a broad framework for the federal judiciary while leaving Congress to...
Sep 17 1787
At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the framers laid out a plan for a federal government composed of...
Sep 2 1789
Congress created the Department of the Treasury to administer all public accounts, which included those of the...
Sep 15 1789
Congress charged the Department of State with keeping the seal of the United States and affixing it to commissions...
Sep 24 1789
Article III of the U.S. Constitution provided for a supreme court, but otherwise left to Congress the structuring of...
Sep 24 1789
In the Judiciary Act of 1789, the First Congress provided the detailed organization of a federal judiciary that the...
Sep 24 1789
In the Judiciary Act of 1789, the First Congress provided the detailed organization of a federal judiciary that the...
Sep 24 1789
When Congress created the U.S. circuit courts as the primary trial courts of the federal judiciary, it did not...
Apr 30 1790
In the Crimes Act of 1790, Congress created the first comprehensive list of federal offenses, naming 23 separate...
May 8 1792
In 1789, Congress passed a statute mandating that federal courts, in suits at common law, follow the procedures then...
Aug 9 1792
The justices of the Supreme Court wrote to George Washington in August 1792 in the hope that he would persuade...
Aug 11 1792
In the Invalid Pensions Act of 1792, Congress instructed circuit courts to review claims for pensions by...
Feb 19 1793
In a suit brought by the estate of a South Carolina citizen seeking to recover payment from the state of Georgia for...
Feb 21 1793
In the Patent Act of 1793, Congress granted patent holders the right to bring infringement suits in the U.S. circuit...
Feb 7 1795
During the debates over the Constitution, many Antifederalists were concerned about the provision in Article III...
Feb 13 1801
In February 1801, Congress reorganized the judiciary to constitute six numbered circuits and authorized sixteen new...
Feb 13 1801
In February 1801, Congress reorganized the judiciary to constitute six numbered circuits and authorized sixteen new...
Apr 29 1802
Almost immediately after becoming the majority in Congress, the Republicans carried out their own reorganization of...
Apr 29 1802
Almost immediately after becoming the majority in Congress, the Republicans carried out their own reorganization of...
Feb 24 1803
The presidential election of 1800 was fiercely contested along partisan lines. In what historians have called the "...
Mar 12 1804
Supreme Court justice Samuel Chase, an ardent Federalist supporter, was known for his open partisanship both on and...
Feb 24 1807
In 1807, Congress created the Seventh Circuit, consisting of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The act also increased...
Mar 16 1810
In 1795, the Georgia legislature granted 35 million acres of land to private speculators at a very low price. When...
Feb 13 1812
In the 1790s and early 1800s, most of the criminal prosecutions in the federal courts were for crimes specified by...
Jun 3 1813
The U.S. House of Representatives established the Committee on the Judiciary in 1813 as a standing committee. Since...
Mar 20 1816
Congress in the Judiciary Act of 1789 granted the Supreme Court power to review the decisions of state courts when...
Dec 10 1816
Three years after the House of Representatives established its Judiciary Committee, the Senate did likewise. Like...
Jul 1 1822
Article III of the U.S. Constitution extended the judicial power to cases in law and in equity. Equity was a...
Mar 19 1824
Article III of the Constitution included within the judicial power cases “arising under” the Constitution, federal...
Mar 19 1824
Article III of the Constitution included within the judicial power cases “arising under” the Constitution, federal...
Mar 15 1828
An insurance company challenged the legitimacy of a sale of property approved by a Florida territorial court,...
Mar 18 1831
In 1828, the Cherokee Nation sought an injunction from the Supreme Court to prevent the state of Georgia from...
Feb 16 1833
John Barron owned a profitable wharf in the city of Baltimore, the value of which was diminished when a large amount...
Mar 3 1837
In response to the admission of eight western states between 1812 and 1837, Congress reorganized the Seventh Circuit...
Jan 25 1842
Despite the mandate in section 34 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that federal courts apply state law in diversity...
Aug 23 1842
The Judiciary Act of 1789 limited the criminal jurisdiction of the U.S. district courts to cases in which the...
Mar 7 1844
In the Letson case, a citizen of New York brought suit in federal court against a railroad corporation...
Mar 3 1849
Congress created the Department of the Interior, which immediately took over the financial administration of the...
Feb 24 1855
Congress established the Court of Claims with jurisdiction to hear and determine all monetary claims against the...
Feb 24 1855
In 1855, Congress established the Court of Claims to hear monetary claims against the United States based upon a...
Mar 2 1855
In 1855, Congress created the California Circuit, with its own circuit judgeship, because of the impracticality of...
Mar 7 1859
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin issued a writ of habeas corpus for the release of Sherman Booth, who had been...
Jul 15 1862
During the Civil War, the absence of southern Democrats from Congress presented the Republican Party with an...
Mar 3 1863
After Matthew McAllister resigned from the California circuit judgeship, Congress abolished the California Circuit...
Mar 9 1865
Congress created the Court of Claims in 1855 to hear monetary claims against the United States. The statute creating...
Apr 9 1866
During Reconstruction, Congress passed several statutes aimed at protecting the rights of the formerly enslaved,...
Jul 23 1866
After the Civil War, Congress reorganized the judicial circuits once again and eliminated the Tenth Circuit. This...
Jul 27 1866
During Reconstruction, Republicans in Congress wished to expand access to federal courts in order to protect...
Feb 5 1867
During Reconstruction, Congress expanded the habeas corpus jurisdiction of the federal courts in order to prevent...
Jul 28 1868
The Fourteenth Amendment, one of the three Reconstruction Amendments, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution the...
Apr 10 1869
During Reconstruction, Congress established separate circuit judgeships for the first time since the 1801 judgeships...
Apr 12 1869
A statute of 1867 extended the writ of habeas corpus to anyone deprived of his or her liberty in violation of the...
May 31 1870
During Reconstruction, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1870, also known as the Enforcement Act or the First...
Jun 22 1870
The Department of Justice was established in 1870 and immediately took over the financial administration of the...
Apr 20 1871
Congress followed the Civil Rights Act of 1870 with an 1871 law “to enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth...
Jun 1 1872
In contrast to the 1792 Process Act, which directed federal courts to follow the procedures of state courts as they...
Apr 14 1873
The Slaughterhouse Cases represented the Supreme Court’s first interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment,...
Mar 1 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 guaranteed universal access to inns, public transportation, theaters, and “other places...
Mar 3 1875
In the Jurisdiction and Removal Act of 1875, Congress granted the federal courts the full range of jurisdiction set...
Mar 27 1876
The Cruikshank case arose from the 1873 Colfax Massacre, in which a group of armed whites killed more than...
Mar 3 1887
The Tucker Act expanded the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Claims, established in 1855 to hear monetary claims...
Feb 6 1889
Until 1879, the federal courts lacked appellate jurisdiction over criminal cases (with the minor exception created...
Jun 10 1890
In 1890, Congress established the Board of General Appraisers to decide controversies related to appraisals of...
Jun 10 1890
In 1890, Congress established the Board of General Appraisers to decide controversies related to appraisals of...
Mar 3 1891
In response to growing caseloads that threatened to overwhelm the federal judiciary, Congress in 1891 created a...
Mar 3 1891
With the Supreme Court overwhelmed by growing caseloads, Congress passed the Evarts Act (named for its sponsor, U.S...
May 25 1891
The Supreme Court held that the federal territorial court in Alaska was not a “court of the United States” for...
Feb 9 1893
When the circuit courts of appeals were created in 1891, the District of Columbia was not included in a judicial...
May 28 1896
Congress for the first time authorized salaries for the marshals and district attorneys (later called U.S. attorneys...
Mar 1 1897
The city of Chicago went to court to condemn a piece of property owned by a railroad in order to connect two...
Jul 1 1898
The U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy, but for much of the...
Mar 23 1908
In response to a lawsuit from shareholders of railroad companies challenging the constitutionality of a Minnesota...
Aug 5 1909
Congress created the U.S. Court of Customs Appeals to hear appeals from decisions of the Board of General Appraisers...
Aug 5 1909
In 1909, Congress created the U.S. Court of Customs Appeals, with five authorized judgeships, to hear appeals from...
Jun 18 1910
In 1910, Congress established the Commerce Court to hear appeals from decisions of the Interstate Commerce...
Jun 18 1910
Congress created the Commerce Court in 1910 to hear appeals from decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission,...
Mar 3 1911
In 1911, Congress enacted the first Judicial Code, collecting all existing statutes regarding the judiciary then in...
Mar 3 1911
In 1911, Congress compiled the first judicial code, which consisted of all the statutes Congress had passed...
Dec 23 1914
Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 gave the Supreme Court mandatory appellate jurisdiction from the highest...
Sep 6 1916
In 1916, Congress gave the Supreme Court more control over which cases it would hear. A federal statute provided...
Feb 26 1919
As it did with respect to marshals and district attorneys in 1896, Congress moved the clerks of the district courts...
Oct 28 1919
The National Prohibition Act, better known as the Volstead Act, gave federal and state courts concurrent...
Sep 14 1922
In 1922, Congress created the Conference of Senior Circuit Judges, later renamed the Judicial Conference of the...
Feb 13 1925
The Judges’ Bill of 1925, so nicknamed because it was proposed by the justices of the Supreme Court, made major...
Mar 4 1925
The Probation Act of 1925 gave U.S. district courts the power to suspend the sentence of an individual convicted of...
Jun 8 1925
After handing out literature advocating the establishment of socialism in the United States, Benjamin Gitlow was...
May 28 1926
In 1890, in order to reduce the burden on the U.S. circuit and district courts, Congress established the Board of...
Feb 28 1929
The addition of new states to the Union between 1866 and 1912 made the Eighth Circuit the largest in the nation,...
May 20 1929
The Bakelite case involved a petition to bar the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals from hearing an appeal...
Feb 23 1932
Since the beginning of the New Deal era, regulations promulgated by administrative agencies have formed an ever...
May 29 1933
The Supreme Court heard a challenge by a judge of the Court of Claims to a reduction in his salary. The Court, in...
Oct 7 1935
For the first 146 years of its existence, the Supreme Court lacked its own permanent home. Between 1790 and 1935,...
Feb 5 1937
After winning the 1936 presidential election in a landslide, Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a bill to expand the...
Aug 24 1937
In 1937, Congress authorized any party to a suit in which a federal law was held to be unconstitutional to appeal...
Apr 25 1938
In 1842, the Supreme Court held in Swift v. Tyson that while federal courts were required to apply state...
Apr 25 1938
The Supreme Court upheld a federal law banning the interstate shipment of “filled milk,” or milk to which skimmed...
Sep 16 1938
The Conformity Act of 1872 directed the federal courts to follow the procedural rules of the states in which they...
Sep 16 1938
In 1938, pursuant to its authority under the Rules Enabling Act of 1934, the Supreme Court enacted uniform rules of...
Aug 7 1939
In 1939, Congress provided the federal judiciary with its own administrative agency, which was to work under the...
Mar 3 1941
This case established what is often called the "Pullman abstention" doctrine, under which a federal court may...
Jan 30 1942
Congress created the Emergency Court of Appeals as part of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, designed to...
Jan 30 1942
Congress created the Emergency Court of Appeals as part of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, designed to...
Aug 2 1946
In 1946, Congress for the first time made the United States liable for damages to property, personal injury, or...
Jun 25 1948
In 1948, Congress carried out the first major overhaul of the Judicial Code since it was originally compiled in 1911...
Jun 25 1948
In 1948, Congress carried out the first major overhaul of the Judicial Code since it was originally compiled in 1911...
Jul 25 1958
In 1958, Congress further limited the scope of removal in cases based on diversity of citizenship. The amount in...
Sep 29 1958
State officials in Arkansas resisted the Supreme Court’s mandate, issued in Brown v. Board of Education and...
Feb 20 1961
James Monroe sued the city of Chicago and two individual police officers for violating his civil rights after they...
Jun 19 1961
In 1897, the Supreme Court applied to the states the Fifth Amendment's protection against the taking of property...
Mar 26 1962
Baker v. Carr involved a claim that the Tennessee legislature had failed to reapportion the state’s...
Jul 10 1962
Article II, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution provided the president with the “Power to fill up all Vacancies that...
Mar 18 1963
Since 1867, state prisoners had the ability to seek habeas corpus relief from a federal court. Noia was convicted in...
Dec 20 1967
Upon the recommendation of Chief Justice Earl Warren, Congress created the Federal Judicial Center to serve the...
Apr 29 1968
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation was created to consolidate and transfer to a single U.S. district...
Oct 17 1968
In 1968, Congress created the position of U.S. magistrate, later renamed U.S. magistrate judge, to replace the...
Jan 5 1971
In 1971 Congress authorized each circuit judicial council to appoint a circuit executive to “exercise such...
Apr 20 1971
The Swann case represented an important development in the law regarding the implementation of school...
Jun 21 1971
In 1967, a man arrested on drug charges brought suit in federal court against the arresting officers, claiming they...
Dec 22 1971
The Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals was created in 1971 and given exclusive jurisdiction to hear appeals from...
Dec 22 1971
The Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals was created in 1971 and given exclusive jurisdiction to hear appeals from...
Oct 25 1978
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act included among its provisions a court made up of seven U.S. district court...
Oct 25 1978
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act included among its provisions a court made up of seven U.S. district court...
Nov 6 1978
The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978, which constituted the first major revision of the federal bankruptcy laws since...
Oct 10 1980
In 1980, Congress reorganized the U.S. Customs Court as the U.S. Court of International Trade, the primary function...
Oct 10 1980
In 1980, Congress reorganized the U.S. Customs Court as the U.S. Court of International Trade, a court established...
Oct 14 1980
Responding to the fact that the Fifth Circuit had become the busiest court of appeals in the country, Congress in...
Oct 15 1980
After decades of debate over whether a method other than impeachment for the removal of unfit federal judges was...
Apr 2 1982
In 1982, Congress created the Federal Circuit, the first judicial circuit to be defined by its jurisdiction rather...
Apr 2 1982
In 1982, Congress created the only federal judicial circuit to be defined by its subject matter jurisdiction rather...
Jun 28 1982
The Bankruptcy Act of 1978 expanded the power of bankruptcy judges dramatically, giving them exclusive jurisdiction...
Sep 27 1982
In 1975, Congress authorized the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to establish, on a demonstration basis,...
Jun 25 1984
In the Chevron case, several environmental organizations challenged the validity of an Environmental...
Oct 12 1984
As part of a broader effort to reform federal sentencing laws, Congress created the Sentencing Commission to prepare...
Apr 26 1988
A statute permitted a special division of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to appoint...
Jun 27 1988
In 1988, Congress eliminated the last vestiges of the Supreme Court’s mandatory jurisdiction, giving the Court...
Jan 18 1989
The Mistretta case involved a challenge to the constitutionality of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984,...
Dec 1 1990
As part of the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990, designed to address the problems of cost and delay in the federal...
Jun 12 1992
In the Lujan case, the Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs could not sue two environmental agencies for...
Feb 18 2005
In 2005, Congress passed the Class Action Fairness Act, a multifaceted piece of legislation that had as one its main...