growing nation. Nor is the reason obscure: no part came from the
hands of the framers in more fragmentary shape or left more to
the discretion of Congress and the Court.

Congress is thus placed under constitutional obligation to
establish one Supreme Court, but the size of that Court is for
Congress itself to determine, as well as whether there shall be
any inferior Federal Courts at all. What, it may be asked, is the
significance of the word "shall" in Section II? Is it merely
permissive or is it mandatory? And, in either event, when does a
case arise under the Constitution or the laws of the United
States? Here, too, are questions which are left for Congress in
the first instance and for the Supreme Court in the last.
Further, the Supreme Court is given "original jurisdiction" in
certain specified cases and "appellate jurisdiction" in all
others--subject, however, to "such exceptions and under such
regulations as the Congress shall make." Finally, the whole
question of the relation of the national courts to the state
judiciaries, though it is elaborately discussed by Alexander
Hamilton in the "Federalist," is left by the Constitution itself
to the practically undirected wisdom of Congress, in the exercise
of its power to pass "all laws which shall be necessary and
proper for carrying into execution"* its own powers and those of
the other departments of the Government.

* Article I, section VIII, 18.


Almost the first official act of the Senate of the United States,
after it had perfected its own organization, was the appointment