History

The First Circuit Court

Following passage of the Judiciary Act of 1789, the United States district courts were separated into three circuits: Eastern, Middle, and Southern. The Eastern Circuit covered the districts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York—with the important exception that it did not cover the district of Maine (then still part of Massachusetts). The Eastern Circuit Court, which sat twice a year in each district, was constituted of two Justices of the Supreme Court and a district judge from the circuit. The District Court of Maine was entitled to act like a circuit court, but appeals were to be heard by the circuit court when it sat in Massachusetts. Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution; Puerto Rico was an administrative district in the Spanish Empire.

The “Midnight Judges” Reform of 1801

The Judiciary Act of 1801, better known as the “Midnight Judges” Act for the number of judicial appointment opportunities it created in the twilight of John Adams’s presidency, also reformed the circuit courts. This Act created the first “First Circuit,” which included the districts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The Act also established that there would be three permanent judges appointed for each of the circuit courts (with the exception of the Sixth Circuit, which had only one). While Congress (now containing a majority of Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans) repealed the Act in March 1802, the Judiciary Act of 1802 kept New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island in the First Circuit, but removed the district of Maine. The district court in Maine was thus restored to having the powers of a circuit court. The First Circuit bench was made up of the Supreme Court Justice assigned to (and residing in) the First Circuit, along with the district judge of the district in which the court was then sitting.

Addition of Maine

Weeks after Maine’s admission to the United States as a state in its own right in 1820, Congress added it to the First Circuit and took away from the district court the powers of the circuit courts.

Judiciary Act of 1891 and the Addition of Puerto Rico

The Judiciary Act of 1891 created the modern system of courts of appeals, providing them with jurisdiction over most appeals and limiting the right of direct appeal to the Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit had two judges, which was expanded to three in 1905. In 1915, “Porto Rico” (the official name for the island until 1932) was added to the First Circuit, and appeals from the U.S. District Court for Porto Rico, then an Article IV court for the territory of Puerto Rico, were directed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. In 1966, the judges of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico were granted life tenure and the district court converted into an Article III court.

Arriving at Today’s First Circuit

In 1978, Congress gave the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit an additional judge. In 1984, Congress authorized two more judgeships for the court of appeals, bringing the total to its present-day number of six judges.