In February 1801, Congress reorganized the judiciary to constitute six numbered circuits and authorized sixteen new judgeships to serve the circuit courts, thereby relieving the justices of the Supreme Court from circuit riding duties. The act also gave the federal courts jurisdiction over all cases arising under the Constitution, federal law, and treaties – otherwise known as federal question jurisdiction – and made it easier for parties to bring other types of cases into federal court. These changes reflected the Federalists’ view that a judiciary exercising the full range of jurisdiction allowed under the Constitution was essential to the establishment of a strong national government. The Jeffersonians, however, already suspicious of the federal judiciary in the wake of the Sedition Act prosecutions – and perceiving the 1801 act as an attempt by John Adams to stack the courts with Federalists before he left office – saw this expanded jurisdiction as anti-democratic and a threat to state sovereignty.
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