Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution prescribes that the "judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and such inferior Courts" as Congress sees fit to establish.

It makes no provision for the composition or procedures of any of the courts, leaving this to Congress to decide.

The federal judiciary of the United States is created by the Judiciary Act of 1789 (ch. 20, 1 Stat. 73), a federal statute adopted on September 24, 1789, in the first session of the First United States Congress.

The Act provides that a United States Marshal's primary function is to execute all lawful warrants issued to him under the authority of the United States.

The law defines marshals as officers of the courts charged with assisting federal courts in their law-enforcement functions.

The existence of a separate federal judiciary had been controversial during the debates over the ratification of the Constitution.

Anti-Federalists have denounced the judicial power as a potential instrument of national tyranny.

Indeed, of the ten amendments that eventually become the Bill of Rights, five (the fourth through the eighth) deal primarily with judicial proceedings.

Even after ratification, some opponents of a strong judiciary had urged that the federal court system be limited to a Supreme Court and perhaps local admiralty judges.

The Congress, however, has decided to establish a system of federal trial courts with broader jurisdiction, thereby creating an arm for enforcement of national laws within each state.

President George Washington signs the Act into law on September 24, 1789 and promptly submits his nominations to fill the offices created by the Act.

Among the nominees are John Jay for Chief Justice of the United States; John Rutledge, William Cushing, Robert H. Harrison, James Wilson, and John Blair Jr. as Associate Justices; Edmund Randolph for Attorney General; and myriad district judges, United States Attorneys, and United States Marshals for Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia.

Among Washington's initial six Supreme Court nominations, all accept and are confirmed with the exception of Robert Harrison, who declines to serve.

As a result of Harrison's refusal, Washington will later nominate James Iredell, who will join the Court in 1790, thereby completing the Court at its legally prescribed "full strength" of six members for the first time, and fulfilling the requirements of the 1789 Act.