The
Judiciary Act of 1789 (ch. 20, ) was a United States federal
statute adopted on September 24, 1789, in the first session of the
First United States Congress. It established the
federal judiciary of the United States.
Article III, Section 1 of the
Constitution prescribed that the "judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and such inferior Courts" as Congress saw fit to establish. It made no provision for the composition or procedures of any of the courts, leaving this to Congress to decide.