The Judiciary Act of 1891 (), also known as the Circuit Court of Appeals Act of 1891, or the Evarts Act after its primary sponsor, Senator William M. Evarts, created the United States courts of appeals and reassigned the jurisdiction of most routine appeals from the

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

and circuit courts to these appellate courts. Therefore, it is also called the Circuit Courts of Appeals Act. The Act created nine new courts that were originally known as the "United States circuit courts of appeals;" the name was changed to its current form in 1948. Each court was composed of two circuit judges and one district judge. The new courts had jurisdiction over most appeals of lower court decisions. The

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

could review either legal issues that a court of appeals certified or decisions of court of appeals by

writ of certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of a prerogative writ in England, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...

. The change resulted in an immediate reduction in the Supreme Court's workload (from 623 cases filed in 1890 to 379 in 1891 and 275 in 1892). The Act also eliminated the requirement of "

circuit riding In the United States, circuit riding was the practice of a judge, sometimes referred to as a circuit rider, traveling to a judicial district to preside over court cases there. A defining feature of American federal courts for over a century after ...

" by Supreme Court justices under which the justices sat as trial judges on the U.S. circuit courts. The circuit courts themselves remained in existence, although without their former appellate jurisdiction, until they were abolished and their trial jurisdiction transferred to the district courts by the

Judicial Code of 1911 The Judicial Code of 1911 () abolished the United States circuit courts and transferred their trial jurisdiction to the U.S. district courts. In 1911, the United States Congress created a single code encompassing all statutes related to the judic ...

. The Act allowed certain types of cases to be appealed directly to the Supreme Court (bypassing the new circuit courts of appeals), such as convictions for capital crimes; cases involving the construction or application of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

; or cases in which a federal law or treaty or a state constitution or law was alleged to violate the U.S. Constitution.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Judiciary Act of 1891
statute text

''Landmark Judicial Legislation'' at the

Federal Judicial Center The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States. According to , the main areas of re ...

1891 in American law

1891 Events January * January 1 ** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence. **Germany takes formal possession of its new African territories. * January 4 – The Earl of Zetland issues a ...

History of the Supreme Court of the United States

See also

References

External links