The Revolution's Impact on the First Lower Federal Courts

FAIN: FT-12440-75

Richard J. Richardson
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1350)

To explore the juridical elites generated by America's Revolution and investigate their degree of involvement in staffing and defining the new federal court system established by the Judiciary Act of 1789. Study will show significant links between the American Revolution's quest for a rule of law and a society grounded in liberty and the subsequent legitimization of these concepts by the men of the lower federal judiciary.