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FEDERAL COURTS[1].
Political importance of the judiciary in the United States.—Difficulty of treating this subject.—Utility of judicial power in confederations.—What tribunals could be introduced into the Union.—Necessity of establishing federal courts of justice.—Organization of the national judiciary.—The Supreme Court.—In what it differs from all known tribunals.
I have inquired into the legislative and executive power of the Union, and the judicial power now remains to be examined; but in this place I cannot conceal my fears from the reader. Their judicial institutions exercise a great influence on the condition of the Anglo-Americans, and they occupy a prominent place amongst what are properly called political institutions: in this respect they are peculiarly deserving of our attention. But I am at loss to explain the political action of the American tribunals without entering into some technical details on their Constitution and their forms of proceeding; and I know not how to descend to these minutiæ without wearying the curiosity of the
- ↑ See Chapter VI., entitled ‘Judicial Power in the United States.’ This chapter explains the general principles of the American theory of judicial institutions. See also The Federal Constitution, Art. 3. See The Federalist, Nos. 78-83 inclusive; and a work entitled ‘Constitutional Law,’ being a view of the practice and jurisdiction of the Courts of the United States, by Thomas Sergeant. See Story, pp. 134, 162, 489, 511, 581, 668; and the organic law of the 24th September, 1789, in the Collection of the Laws of the United States, by Story, vol. i. p. 53.
