What are the Midnight Judges in the Judiciary Act of 1789 with John Marshall?

Answer 1

In the nineteen days between passage of this Act and the conclusion of his administration, President Adams quickly filled as many of the newly created circuit judgeships as possible. The new judges were known as the "Midnight Judges" because Adams was said to be signing their appointments at midnight prior to President Thomas Jefferson's inauguration.

Mr. Curious has included some important information beyond the question, but as with the old saying (as long as we’re going further), there is yet more to the story.

This was part of a debate which began before the Constitution was written. That is, should the general government (with its three branches) created by Constitution be strong relative to the States or, be limited specifically to its delegated powers within that Constitution. This was debated throughout the various and several States during the Convention and during the subsequent debates for ratification. Both the “Federalist Papers” and the “Anti-Federalist Papers” addressed the many issues, the judiciary was a major element in these debates.

As part of these debates the idea of political parties (or as they termed them, factions) was addressed. The hope of many that such concepts would be replaced by those who solely represented the perspective of their States and factions would not exist. Clearly this hope was in vain and political parties came to direct the striving for power.

As Mr. Curious point out, John Adams was concerned that those anti strong federal government would soon control everything with Jefferson’s rise to the Presidency. President Adams represented Hamilton perspective and that was further supported by John Marshall and Adams stacking of the court with like minded individuals at the midnight hour.

Over time (finalized with the civil war) the Adams perspective, won out (defeating Founder Constitutional intent) and I too use John Marshall as an example of this impact. In 1819 there was the case of McCulloch v. Maryland where Marshall opined that in Article I, Section 8, Clause 18, the words “Necessary” and “Proper” had the same meaning. This was not true in terms of Founders intent, nor in the roots of Common Law, and certainly not in language usage. Even so, it laid the foundation to begin the tearing of the Constitution in the same way that the appointing of the “”midnight judges” did, and that in years to come Lincoln would carry on in extreme extra-constitutional acts and in the manner that FDR packed the court.

There is clearly far more to the tale of midnight judges, but it is enough to say here that President Adams care little for Founder Intent and instituted his own perspective of the Constitution and Executive Power. No where was this more evident than his disregard for the Bill of Rights as demonstrated in his use of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which, by the way, makes current executive acts pale in comparison and is rivaled only through the same degree of Constitutional disregard by Lincoln.

Answer 2

There is much more to it than Randy offered:

1. John Adams knew that his political party, the Federalists, was waning in popularity. Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans were growing with every new boat load of immigrant farmers that arrived. Therefore Adams it wasn't long before the Jeffersonians would soon take over.
2. Since the United States Constitution states that justices are to serve for LIFE (except if convicted of high crimes or misdemeanors) and since there were several Federalist judges looking for appointments, Adams spent a great deal of time during his final three weeks signing appointments for local justices to serve.
3. This would accomplish Adams' goal of "seeding" the courts around New England with Federalist justices, which would be there for decades after the Federalist party had officially died out.
4. John Marshall was a justice appointed by John Adams (although NOT one of the Midnight Appointees) and he served well into the 1830s. Another of these Midnight Justices was noneother than William Marbury--the subject of one of the most significant Supreme Court cases in history--Marbury v. Madison (1803)


And there you have it.

Answer 3

Midnight Judge