Constituting Tribunals – Constitution Article 1 §8.9

This week I’m studying Article 1 §8.9 of the Constitution. It’s about Congress’ power to constitute tribunals.

In the wonderful anime Kino’s Journey, a character wanders into a country where people live in peace and freedom and are welcoming to newcomers. His companion says it seems like a perfectly normal place. He replies, “A lot of people have to work very hard to make a place normal.”

Democracy is not for spectators; it takes a lot of work from a lot of people. To do it right, you have to know the rules. That’s why I’m studying the Constitution, one clause at a time. I’m up to Article 1 §8.9.

The Tribunal Clause?

I don’t know if this clause has a nickname, but it constitutes tribunals.

Article 1 §8.9

Congress shall have the power

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

A simple reading says “Congress gets to establish lower courts.” So far, the Constitution hasn’t established the Supreme Court, so in a way this clause is a bit anachronistic. But whatever. Let’s see if the Annotated Constitution says it’s more complicated than it looks:

IN GENERAL See discussion “The Power of Congress to Control the Federal Courts” under Article III, § 2, cl. 2, infra.

Yeah, that’s helpful. I Googled “Congress establish lower courts” and found this excellent reference on Congressional power to create federal courts. It says that power rests in Article 3. This appears to be another redundant clause.  So I’m not going to worry about it until I get there. Even though I want to get all wonky about why they used “constitute” instead of “establish” and “tribunals” instead of “courts.”

Redundancy

What I am worried about is my discovery that someone else already blogged the Constitution one clause at a time! My whole Constitution series is redundant! Some engineer beat me to the punch five years ago, as I discovered during my research of 1 §8.8. He even used a nearly identical image of the original document to illustrate his posts. Also, Schmoop did it, too.

I am devastated. But also, whatever. It would be far less satisfying to read his blog than it is to do all this research for myself, and hopefully there are people out there who like the way I write about it.

Keep calm and carry on.