1789年4月底, 新一届美国国会召开了, 美国第一任总统宣誓就职. But the government would not be complete until a national judiciary was established. 根据宪法第三条, “the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” Although some jurisdictions of the Supreme Court were specified in Article III, 《赌博十大平台排行》没有对法院的规模作出规定, 联邦法院系统的结构, 或者它的程序. 这些问题交由国会决定，国会迅速采取了行动.
甚至在乔治·华盛顿总统就职之前, Congress had begun the laborious task of creating the new government’s structures and processes. The Senate, whose deliberations were conducted in closed sessions, was the first to act. 四月底, just one day after the Senate achieved a quorum and under the leadership of Senator Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, a bill to establish the federal judiciary was presented for consideration. 6月12日，S. 1, the first piece of legislation ever proposed in the upper house of Congress, 被报告出了委员会, providing for a Supreme Court consisting of a chief justice and five associate justices who would convene twice a year. 该法案还将美国划分为13个司法区, 每个地区都有自己的法院, 联邦检察官, 还有一个联邦法警.
来自地区法院的上诉将由“巡回法院”审理,” made up of a district judge and two members of the Supreme Court who would “ride circuit” and meet in their assigned districts twice a year. The bill further defined the jurisdiction of federal courts and the kinds of cases that could be brought to them. Finally, it established the office of Attorney General “to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court.”
埃尔斯沃思是《正规赌博十大平台排行》的有力支持者. He had represented Connecticut at the Constitutional Convention as an advocate of the small States and participated in the compromise between the large and states. He had been a member of the Committee of Detail and a leading advocate f或宪法 at Connecticut’s ratifying convention. 早些时候，他曾在大陆会议任职，并担任过州法官. Aiding Ellsworth was New Jersey’s William Paterson who had presented the New Jersey Plan at the Constitutional Convention. Sparring against Ellsworth and Paterson were those who believed a federal judiciary would wield too much power as well as those who believed it would not have enough power. Of special concern to some was whether federal courts might overrule state laws regulating payment of debts, a chronic issue facing debtors and creditors during and in the aftermath of the War for Independence.
Among the bill’s most controversial provisions was that which permitted federal courts to overturn state legislation if they conflicted with treaties, 联邦法律, 或宪法. 9月24日，华盛顿总统签署了S. 1789年的《正规赌博十大平台排行》. 同一天, he nominated John Jay to be the first Chief Justice of the United States and five others as Associate Justices – John Blair of Virginia, 马萨诸塞州的威廉·库欣, 宾夕法尼亚州的詹姆斯·威尔逊, 北卡罗来纳州的詹姆斯·艾瑞德尔, 以及南卡罗来纳州的约翰·拉特利奇. 他们每个人都参加了制定宪法的工作.
法律规定每年召开两次会议, 最高法院将于2月1日举行第一次开庭, 1790, 在纽约的商人交易所大楼. District courts had already been created and the District Court of New York had been meeting in the building since the previous November, 这是根据新宪法成立的任何法院的第一次会议. Just prior to the Supreme Court’s first session on the second floor of the Exchange, city officials moved the market’s butchers across the street to spare the Court “interruptions from the noise of carts.” Lacking a quorum, the Supreme Court’s first session was delayed until the next day, February 2.
不确定新法官应该如何着装, Chief Justice Jay probably arrived in a black silk robe with salmon-colored stripes, 后来被著名画家吉尔伯特·斯图尔特画在了画布上. 涌进法庭的观众赞叹“优雅”, gravity, 法官着装的整洁。, but mocked Justice Cushing when he strolled the city streets wearing the professional wig of an English judge. 引起轰动，遭受一些男孩的嘲弄，他们大喊“我的眼睛。! 好漂亮的假发!他再也没有穿过它.
最高法院第一个任期的特点是法庭人满为患, 但是没有案件需要审理. 相反，法院在最初的日子里制定了自己的程序. 一周后，没有审理任何案件，法院结束了第一次开庭. 不过, the justices’ work was not done; they now “rode circuit” to hear appeals in the circuit courts.
The Supreme Court’s second annual session convened in August, once again at the Exchange. 它的第一个案底案件是Staphorst v. 这起案件在口头辩论开始前就已经解决了. 同样，它的第一个上诉案件在辩论前被撤销. 它的第一个有记录的决定是West v. Barnes, 8月3日的判决, 1791, 几个月前，首都从纽约搬到了费城. It was an unremarkable case involving a financial dispute and handed down the day after both sides had argued its case.
For the next three years, the Supreme Court would have little business before it. Most federal cases were decided in federal District Courts or on appeal when Supreme Court Justices “rode circuit” (and continually complained about the excessive amount of travel, 稍后要解决的问题). 然而，在1793年，法院在奇泽姆v. Georgia would prompt adoption of the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution, 限制法院的管辖权. 其他问题将根据新情况的需要在以后决定, including the Court’s refusal to give advisory opinions to the President and its assumption of the power of judicial review in Marbury v. 麦迪逊in1805. 但就我们的目的而言, by 1790年2月2日, 政府的第三个分支已经就位, completing the “more perfect union” designed and ratified by the people’s representatives.