John Jay was the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, created under the Constitution before America250.
President George Washington nominated Jay in 1789, and the Senate confirmed him as the Court’s first chief justice. The Judiciary Act of 1789 had established the federal judiciary and defined the Supreme Court’s initial structure.
Jay served from October 19, 1789, until June 29, 1795. The early Court had little of the institutional power associated with the modern Supreme Court, and it heard relatively few cases during Jay’s tenure.
Jay later became governor of New York and negotiated the controversial Jay Treaty with Great Britain in 1794. He was succeeded as chief justice by John Rutledge briefly and then by Oliver Ellsworth. John Marshall, who served later, is often more closely associated with the Court’s early influence.