Judiciary Act of 1793
The Judiciary Act of 1793 (ch. 22 of the Acts of the
The
In 1792, Supreme Court justices and also the Attorney General, Edmund Randolph, had urged President George Washington to push for changes in this system; he included a call for some changes in his annual address to Congress that November, and a Senatorial committee put a bill forward in January 1793.[1]
The first three sections of the 1793 act concerned the structure of the court system. The first section authorised circuit courts to function with only one Supreme Court justice. With some exceptions in outlying areas, Supreme Court justices continued to sit as circuit court judges, one per circuit, until the Judiciary Act of 1891 created the courts of appeals.[2] Since courts with two judges (one Supreme Court justice, one district court judge) could cast tie votes, the second section stated rules for those. The third authorised and regulated special circuit court sessions for criminal cases, to be held at more convenient places or times than the statutory regular sessions offered.
The remaining five sections regulated a variety of court practices. Section 4, as requested by Washington, dealt with who could take bail payments. Section 5 made rules for writs of
In some cases, a reference to the "Judiciary Act of 1793" actually points to the Judiciary Act of 1789; for example, the 1789 Act, not the 1793 one, mentions writs of
Notes
- ISBN 0-231-08871-X.
- ^ Russell R. Wheeler and Cynthia Harrison. Creating the Federal Judiciary System. Third edition. [Washington]: Federal Judicial Center, 2005.
- ^ Marcus and Perry 1992, page 202.
- ^ Marcus and Perry 1992, page 203.