The shortest article in the Constitution built the branch that would go on to define the limits of the other two — but only after inventing that power for itself.
Origins
Article III creates "one supreme Court" and lets Congress build the rest. Congress did so almost immediately: the Judiciary Act of 1789, drafted largely by Senator Oliver Ellsworth, created a Supreme Court of six justices (one Chief Justice, five Associates) plus district and circuit courts. John Jay was confirmed as the first Chief Justice on September 26, 1789.
The early Court had so little business that justices spent most of their time "riding circuit" — traveling by horseback to preside over trial-level cases across their assigned regions. Jay himself resigned as Chief Justice in 1795 to become Governor of New York, a job he and many contemporaries considered more significant at the time. Alexander Hamilton, writing in Federalist No. 78, predicted the judiciary would be the "least dangerous" branch, with "neither force nor will, but merely judgment."
That changed in 1803.
The federal court system
1803
Judicial review — the power to strike down a law as unconstitutional — appears nowhere in the Constitution. The Court created it in Marbury v. Madison (1803). Outgoing President John Adams had appointed a batch of last-minute "midnight judges"; incoming Secretary of State James Madison refused to deliver William Marbury's commission. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that Marbury was entitled to his commission — but that the law letting him sue directly in the Supreme Court was itself unconstitutional. In striking down that law, the Court claimed the authority to strike down any law it found unconstitutional, for good.
“It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.”
Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803How the Court's size has changed
Fixed at 9 by the Judiciary Act of 1869. FDR's 1937 plan to add up to 6 more seats — after the Court struck down early New Deal laws — failed in Congress, but the Court's rulings shifted in the New Deal's favor shortly after, a moment historians call "the switch in time that saved nine."
All 17 Chief Justices
| # | Chief Justice | Served | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Jay | 1789–1795 | First Chief Justice; resigned to become NY Governor |
| 2 | John Rutledge | 1795 | Recess appointment; Senate rejected confirmation |
| 3 | Oliver Ellsworth | 1796–1800 | Principal author of the Judiciary Act of 1789 |
| 4 | John Marshall | 1801–1835 | Longest-serving; established judicial review |
| 5 | Roger B. Taney | 1836–1864 | Wrote the Dred Scott decision |
| 6 | Salmon P. Chase | 1864–1873 | Presided over Reconstruction-era cases |
| 7 | Morrison Waite | 1874–1888 | Early rulings limiting Reconstruction amendments |
| 8 | Melville Fuller | 1888–1910 | Wrote the majority in Plessy-era jurisprudence |
| 9 | Edward D. White | 1910–1921 | First Associate Justice elevated to Chief |
| 10 | William Howard Taft | 1921–1930 | Former president; got the Court its own building |
| 11 | Charles Evans Hughes | 1930–1941 | Led the Court through the New Deal clash |
| 12 | Harlan Fiske Stone | 1941–1946 | Wrote the Korematsu majority opinion |
| 13 | Fred Vinson | 1946–1953 | Court began hearing school segregation cases |
| 14 | Earl Warren | 1953–1969 | Brown v. Board; major expansion of civil liberties |
| 15 | Warren Burger | 1969–1986 | Presided over United States v. Nixon |
| 16 | William Rehnquist | 1986–2005 | Presided over the Clinton impeachment trial |
| 17 | John Roberts | 2005–present NOW | Sitting Chief Justice, 20+ years on the bench |
Cases that redrew the map
| Year | Case | What it held |
|---|---|---|
| 1803 | Marbury v. Madison | Established judicial review |
| 1819 | McCulloch v. Maryland | Upheld broad federal implied powers over the states |
| 1857 | Dred Scott v. Sandford | Denied Black Americans citizenship; nullified by the 13th & 14th Amendments and now near-universally condemned |
| 1896 | Plessy v. Ferguson | Upheld "separate but equal" segregation; overturned 1954 |
| 1919 | Schenck v. United States | Upheld limits on speech posing a "clear and present danger" |
| 1944 | Korematsu v. United States | Upheld WWII Japanese-American internment; formally repudiated by the U.S. government (1988) and the Court itself (2018) |
| 1954 | Brown v. Board of Education | Unanimously ended legal school segregation, overturning Plessy |
| 1966 | Miranda v. Arizona | Required police to inform suspects of their rights |
| 1973 | Roe v. Wade | Found a constitutional right to abortion; overturned 2022 |
| 1974 | United States v. Nixon | Rejected unlimited executive privilege; forced release of the Watergate tapes |
| 1992 | Planned Parenthood v. Casey | Upheld Roe's core holding with more room for state regulation |
| 2000 | Bush v. Gore | Halted the Florida recount, deciding the presidential election — still fiercely debated |
| 2010 | Citizens United v. FEC | Struck down limits on independent political spending by corporations and unions |
| 2012 | NFIB v. Sebelius | Upheld the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate as a tax |
| 2015 | Obergefell v. Hodges | Established a nationwide right to same-sex marriage |
| 2022 | Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health | Overturned Roe and Casey, returning abortion regulation to the states |
| 2026 | Learning Resources v. Trump | Ruled the emergency-powers law Trump used to impose global tariffs did not authorize it — tariff-setting belongs to Congress |
| 2026 | Louisiana v. Callais | Struck down Louisiana's use of race in redistricting under the Voting Rights Act, prompting several states to redraw congressional maps |
| 2026 | Trump v. Barbara | Reaffirmed the 14th Amendment's guarantee of birthright citizenship, rejecting an executive order that sought to narrow it |
The 2026 rulings are recent enough that their long-term significance is still being debated — included here for completeness rather than settled verdict.
Who shaped it
Established judicial review and federal supremacy over 34 years.
Led the Court's mid-century expansion of civil rights and liberties.
Argued Brown v. Board; first Black Supreme Court justice, 1967.
First woman on the Supreme Court, appointed 1981.
Leading advocate and later justice on sex-discrimination law.
Sitting Chief Justice since 2005.