At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the framers laid out a plan for a federal government composed of three branches, including an independent judiciary that would be separate from the legislative and executive branches. Discussion among the delegates focused on whether the judiciary would include inferior courts in addition to a supreme court; who would appoint federal judges; the length of judges’ term of office; how much judges would be paid; whether the courts would exercise judicial review, meaning the power to declare state and federal laws unconstitutional and therefore void; and the organization and jurisdiction of the courts, including the relationship between state and federal courts. Article III of the proposed constitution contained a broad framework for the judicial branch, leaving room for Congress to fill in the details. The article provided for a supreme court and such inferior courts as "the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." The judges of the federal courts were to serve during good behavior after being nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, and could not have their salaries diminished as long as they held office. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, thereby putting Article III into effect and authorizing Congress to create the federal judicial system.