Almost immediately after becoming the majority in Congress, the Republicans carried out their own reorganization of the federal judiciary, repealing the act of 1801 on the basis that the limited number of suits filed in federal court made the Federalists’ expansion of the judiciary unnecessary. The six regional circuits created by the 1801 act were retained, but Congress abolished the sixteen circuit judgeships and returned the justices of the Supreme Court to their circuit riding duties. Circuit riding was less burdensome than it had been prior to 1801, however; with six circuits instead of the three established in 1789, each circuit covered a smaller geographic area. The abolition of the circuit judgeships also meant that the district judges had to resume their service on the circuit courts. While the Federalists argued that the tenure and salary protections of Article III prohibited Congress from abolishing these judgeships, the Republicans countered that the Constitution’s grant to Congress of the power to establish inferior courts implied the power to eliminate them as well. The 1802 act also repealed the earlier act’s grant to the courts of federal question jurisdiction, which was not reestablished until 1875.
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