"This 34-page publication is an update of a historical survey originally published in 1989 for the bicentennial year of the First Judiciary Act. The authors explain the provisions of the 1789 Act and the compromises it embodies, review the evolution of the federal judicial system during the nineteenth century, and analyze the conditions and debates that led to passage of the Evarts Act in 1891, which established the three-tiered system that characterizes federal court structure today. The publication includes twelve maps that illustrate the growth and evolution of the districts and circuits from 1789 to the present."--Internet site.

These three volumes contain the only collection of all substantive decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court under its original jurisdiction. This is a unique publication. Under the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme Court considers certain cases directly without taking them as an appeal from lower courts. These cases involve the United States and individual states and state against state. Cases between states may not be considered in any other court; the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction is exclusive.

In offering a general account of the Court as department head, Pfander takes up such important debates in the federal courts' literature as Congress's power to strip the federal courts of jurisdiction to review state court decisions, its authority to assign decision-making authority to state courts, and much more.