Posts Tagged ‘Federalist Senator from CT and 3rd Chief Justice of SCOTUS’

The primary author of the Judiciary Act of 1789, Connecticut Senator (and later the third Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) Oliver Ellsworth. He set about to write a law that defined Federal crimes and punishments for those who were convicted. To be fair, it was not the first law passed by Congress defining crimes, but it is the one that became the foundation of the U.S. Criminal Code.