William R. Casto sheds a new light on America's federal judiciary and the changing legal landscape with his detailed examination of the Supreme Court's formative years. In a study that spans the period from the Court's tentative beginnings through the appointment of its third chief justice, Casto reveals a judicial body quite different in orientation and philosophy from the current Supreme Court and one with a legacy of enduring significance for the U.S. legal system.
Casto portrays the founding of the Supreme Court as a conscious effort to help the newly established government deal more effectively with national security and foreign policy concerns, and he credits the Court with assisting the Washington and Adams administrations establish stable relationships with Great Britain and France. The initial debate over the Supreme Court's jurisdiction as well as over the method of selecting its justices is recalled here.
Casto also reveals the philosophical mindset of the first Supreme Court, contrasting the eighteenth-century concept of natural law with the legal positivism on which the Supreme Court now relies. Using this historical context, he addresses the political controversy over federal common-law crimes, the drafting of the Judiciary Act of 1789, and the adoption of judicial
review.
- Cover
- The Supreme Court in the Early Republic: The Chief Justiceships of John Jay and Oliver Ellsworth
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- CONTENTS
- Editor's Preface
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Repository Symbols
- Short Titles and Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Creating the Court
- The Federal Courts' Subject-Matter Jurisdiction
- Judicial Appointments
- Good Behavior and Compensation
- Judicial Review
- Nonjudicial Duties
- Looking to the Future
- 2 The Judiciary Act of 1789
- Drafting the Judiciary Act
- Opposition to the Federal Courts
- The Seeds of a Compromiss
- Limiting the Supreme Court's Jurisdiction
- Federal Trial Courts: Admiralty Jurisdiction
- Shaping the Compromise on Federal Trial Courts
- The Congress Accepts Ellsworth's Compromise
- Congressional Instrumentalism
- 3 Selecting the Justices and Initial Operations
- The First Nominees
- Assessing Washington's Nomination Criteria
- 4 A National Security Court
- The Nootka Sound Crisis
- Relations with France and Great Britain
- The Neutrality Proclamation
- The Treaty of Alliance and the Correspondence of the Justices
- Admiralty Jurisdiction I: Glass v. The Sloop Betsy
- The Jay Treaty I: Extrajudicial Service
- The Jay Treaty II: The Rutledge Fiasco
- Oliver Ellsworth and Samuel Chase
- The Jay Treaty III: Advisory Opinions
- The British Debt Cases
- The Power to Tax
- Admiralty Jurisdiction II: La Vengeance
- La Wingeance: Majority Opinions and Chiefly Leadership
- Admiralty Jurisdiction III: Restitution of Prizes
- The Jay Treaty IV: Sale of Prizes
- Bushrod Washington
- The Quasi-War I: The Ellsworth Mission
- Alfred Moore
- The Quasi-War II: Bas v. Tingy
- The Quasi-War III: Chief Justice Ellsworth Resigns
- 5 National Security and Federal Criminal Law
- Political Grand Jury Charges
- Common-Law Crimes
- Enforcing the Law of Nations
- Beyond the Law of Nations: The Wnmll Case
- The Problem of Seditious Libel
- Federal Common Law and the Williams Case
- The Williams Case and Interstitial Federal Common Law
- Common-Law Crimes and Common-Law Thinking
- Statutory Crimes: The Whiskey Rebellion
- Statutory Crimes: Justice Chase on Circuit
- 6 Nonjudicial Activities
- Ex-Officio Duties
- The Invalid Pensioners Act
- Advisory Opinions
- A Pragmatic Approach to Nonjudicial Activities
- 7 The Constitution and State Sovereignty
- Chisholm v. Georgia
- The Eleventh Amendment
- The Scope of the Eleventh Amendment
- Suits by Foreign States
- Suits in Admiralty
- Enforcement of Federal Rights
- The Federalists and the Eleventh Amendment
- 8 The Court and the Constitution
- Judicial Review of Federal Actions
- The Sovereignty of the People
- Justice Chase's Doubts
- Interpreting the Constitution
- Congressional Power to Restrict Jurisdiction
- 9 An Assessment
- Table of Cases
- Index
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