The Judiciary Act of 1801 was a law passed by the Federalist-controlled Congress and signed by President John Adams just before Thomas Jefferson’s opposing Democratic-Republicans took power. It was the Federalists’ last attempt to preserve their influence in the government. The Act created several new federal judge and magistrate positions, which President Adams quickly filled with Federalist loyalists—known as the “Midnight Judges.” Its immediate purpose was to entrench Federalist power in the judicial branch after they had lost the executive and legislative branches in the Election of 1800.
