Evarts Act Day: The Birth of the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals (map version)

Abstract

The Evarts Act (26 Stat. 826) altered the federal courts more extensively than any statute since the Judiciary Act of 1789 (1 Stat. 73), which set up the Supreme Court and the subordinate federal courts. The new law created an intermediate federal appellate court system (the circuit courts of appeals profiled here) and rejiggered the relationships and jurisdictions of the various parts of the new system. This map lays out the details of the new courts' first day on the job, and flags a few intriguing aspects of their early work.

Keywords: Supreme Court, Horace Gray, Samuel Blatchford, Joseph Bradley, Melville Fuller, L.Q.C. Lamar, Henry Billings Brown, John Marshall Harlan, David Brewer, Stephen J. Field, Choate, Holy Trinity, Reporter