United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

appointed 39 Article III

United States federal judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

s during his presidency,Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, passim. which lasted from April 30, 1789 to March 4, 1797. The first group of Washington's appointments—two justices of the Supreme Court of the United States and ten district court judges—began service two days after

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, which formally established the federal judiciary. Washington's last court appointee received his commission twelve days before the end of Washington's presidency. As the first president, Washington was responsible for appointing the entire Supreme Court; he appointed a record eleven justices, including two Chief Justices who were confirmed from outside the Court and one former Justice named as Chief Justice by a

recess appointment In the United States, a recess appointment is an appointment by the president of a federal official when the U.S. Senate is in recess. Under the U.S. Constitution's Appointments Clause, the President is empowered to nominate, and with the a ...

, but not ultimately confirmed to the position. Additionally, Washington nominated Robert H. Harrison, who declined to serve, and nominated William Cushing for elevation to Chief Justice,Marcus & Perry, p. 103. who likewise declined. Since there were no sitting justices at the beginning of Washington's term, he had the unique opportunity to fill the entire body of United States federal judges with his selections. Despite this, Washington appointed only 28 judges to the United States district courts, due to the smaller size of the judiciary at the time; there were far fewer states, most states had a single district court, and each district had a single judge assigned to it. Because intermediate federal appellate courts had not yet been established, this, combined with the Supreme Court appointments, constituted the total number of federal judicial appointments made by Washington. The number is roughly 10% of the record 376 judges appointed by Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989, when the judiciary was much larger,The Biographical Directory of Federal Judges lists 358 judges appointed by President Reagan, with reappointments and elevations bringing the number to 376. and less than 5% of the number of active federal judges serving as of July 2010.The Biographical Directory of Federal Judges lists close to 800 judges in active status, with nearly to 500 more in

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

. Richard Peters Jr. served for over 36 years, the longest of Washington's appointments. Washington appointed a small number of Article IV territorial judges. He appointed

Samuel Holden Parsons Samuel Holden Parsons (May 14, 1737 – November 17, 1789) was an American lawyer, jurist, generalHeitman, ''Officers of the Continental Army'', 428. in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and a pioneer to the Ohio Countr ...

John Cleves Symmes John Cleves Symmes (July 21, 1742February 26, 1814) was a delegate to the Continental Congress from New Jersey, and later a pioneer in the Northwest Territory. He was also the father-in-law of President William Henry Harrison and, thereby, th ...

, George Turner and

Rufus Putnam Brigadier-General Rufus Putnam (April 9, 1738 – May 4, 1824) was an American military officer who fought during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. As an organizer of the Ohio Company of Associates, he was instrumenta ...

to the court of the Northwest Territory, Putnam being appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Parsons. He appointed David Campbell,

John McNairy John McNairy (March 30, 1762 – November 12, 1837) was a British-American federal judge of the United States District Court for the District of Tennessee, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee and the United Sta ...

and

Joseph Anderson Joseph Inslee Anderson (November 5, 1757 – April 17, 1837) was an American soldier, judge, and politician, who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1797 to 1815, and later as the First Comptroller of the United States Treasur ...

to the court of the

Southwest Territory The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States a ...

. After the Southwest Territory was admitted to the union as the State of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, McNairy would go on to serve as its first

United States District Judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

. As no Article I legislative courts existed during Washington's administration, he made no judicial appointments under Article I. The first court created under Article I, the United States Court of Claims, would not be established until 1855, under the administration of President Franklin Pierce. Additionally, the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

judiciary would not exist until the passage of the

District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, officially An Act Concerning the District of Columbia (6th Congress, 2nd Sess., ch. 15, , February 27, 1801), is an organic act enacted by the United States Congress in accordance with Article 1, Sec ...

under President

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...

. File:John Rutledge senate.jpg, John Rutledge was appointed to the serve on the Supreme Court twice, first as associate justice and then, after a period of years off the Court, as chief justice. File:1789 Dist. Cts..JPG, Washington appointed federal judges to 17 United States District Courts. Of these, 16 are pictured in the map above, while the 17th, the District of Tennessee, was created shortly before the end of his administration. File:Judge Richard Peters.jpg, Richard Peters Jr. served on the U.S. District Court for the District of Pennsylvania for over 36 years, the longest of Washington's appointments.

United States Supreme Court justices

District courts

Notes

;Renominations

References

;General * * ;Specific {{featured list Judicial appointments

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...