Oliver Ellsworth

Connecticut senator who wrote the Judiciary Act of 1789 establishing the federal court system.

Overview

Ellsworth served as one of Connecticut's first two senators from 1789 to 1796 and was the principal author of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which created the office of attorney general, the three-tier federal court structure of district and circuit courts beneath the Supreme Court, and the system of circuit riding by justices. His statute remains the foundation of the federal judiciary. In 1796 Washington appointed him the third Chief Justice of the United States, where he continued the practice of circuit riding and strengthened the young Court's procedures until 1800, and he was a key envoy to France during the Quasi-War crisis.