The Missing District Court

Chief Justice Roberts's 2016 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary begins with this anecdote:

As winter approached in late 1789, Justice David Sewall of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court received unanticipated correspondence from President George Washington. Washington informed Sewall that he had been appointed and confirmed as United States District Judge for the District of Maine, then still part of Massachusetts. The matter was not open to discussion; Sewall’s commission was enclosed. Writing from his home in York, Sewall noted that the appointment was “unsolicited and unexpected,” and he expressed concern that his service as a state supreme court justice would not fully prepare him for the task.

President Washington appointed all thirteen original United States district judges in like fashion, and most responded with similar humility and trepidation.

But if Maine had its own district, and there were only thirteen judges, then one jurisdiction would appear to be missing.  I am assuming it was Rhode Island, which did not ratify the Constitution until 1790. Does anyone know more about this?

 

Comments

[JLT]

The Judiciary Act of 1789 "created 13 judicial districts within the 11 states that had then ratified the Constitution (North Carolina and Rhode Island were added as judicial districts in 1790, and other states as they were admitted to the Union). Each state comprised one district, except for Virginia and Massachusetts, each of which comprised two. Massachusetts was divided into the District of Maine (which was then part of Massachusetts) and the District of Massachusetts (which covered modern-day Massachusetts). Virginia was divided into the District of Kentucky (which was then part of Virginia) and the District of Virginia (which covered modern-day West Virginia and Virginia)."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_Act_of_1789

[Captain Hruska Carswell, Continuance King]

Professor,

In your post, you noted "most" district judges accepted judicial appointments with "humility and trepidation." Did some not? Who would blow off a request like that? Of course, by today's standards, this would be a great gig. Salary, benefits, life time appointment and not having to chase around buggy operators under the influence for a few bills. Even Lincoln had a tough go of it "riding the circuit" to earn a fee.

[Steve L.]

Captain: Federal courts were brand-new in 1789, so people were necessarily wary of giving up established positions for a job that had no precedent and no predictable future.