{"id":54802,"date":"2016-03-31T21:38:49","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T02:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-legal\/supreme\/supreme_court.html"},"modified":"2023-11-20T12:08:45","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T17:08:45","slug":"supreme_court","status":"publish","type":"supreme","link":"https:\/\/supreme.findlaw.com\/supreme_court.html","title":{"rendered":"History of the United States Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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History of the United States Supreme Court<\/h1>\n
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Article III of the U.S. Constitution<\/a> established one federal court, the United States Supreme Court. The court’s judicial power<\/a> is quite broad. Building a body of federal law and determining the Supreme Court’s role in interpreting it has been up to Congress (and the Court itself).\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

The first Supreme Court assembled on February 2nd, 1790. Six justices shared the bench, including Chief Justice John Jay. In 1791, the Court handed down its first decision in West v. Barnes<\/i>.<\/p>\r\n

Judicial Review\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n

Today, we think of the Supreme Court as the final authority on whether a law complies with the Constitution. But it was actually an 1803 decision by the Supreme Court that established this power. Marbury v. Madison<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>held\u00a0that:<\/p>\r\n