When our Founders drafted the Constitution, they intended that Congress would keep the judiciary as the “least powerful” branch of government and see to it that judges “should be bound down by strict rules and precedents, which serve to define and point out their duty.” (as Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist
78).
Accordingly, the Constitution in Article I, Section 8, states: “The Congress shall have power . . . to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court.” Article III, Section 1, states: “The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” In summary, all federal courts except the Supreme Court were created by Congress, which defined their powers and prescribed what kind of cases they can hear. Going a step further, Article III, Section 2, states: “the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.” In summary, Congress can make “exceptions” to the types of cases that the Supreme Court can decide.
