Which 1789 U.S. law established the federal court system, including district and circuit courts?

The Judiciary Act of 1789 established the federal court system, including the first district and circuit courts.

Congress passed the act during the first session of the First United States Congress, and President George Washington signed it on September 24, 1789. Article III of the Constitution created a Supreme Court but left the design of the lower federal courts to Congress.

The act organized the federal judiciary around a Supreme Court, district courts, and circuit courts. It also established the office of attorney general and provided for the appointment of a U.S. marshal in each federal judicial district. Oliver Ellsworth, a senator from Connecticut who later became chief justice, was a leading architect of the legislation.

The law is sometimes confused with the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. Those documents supplied constitutional authority and protections, but the Judiciary Act created the practical structure through which federal cases would be heard. Congress later revised that structure through additional judiciary acts.