USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -History has given us the image of a petulant President John Adams staying up to all hours of the night in his last days in office in March 1801, commissioning Federalist party members as judges throughout the land.

Detailed explanation-2: -The term was coined because it was alleged that President Adams stayed up until midnight of his last night in office to finish paperwork to appoint his Federalist friends and supporters into judicial offices before President Thomas Jefferson, who was considered to be a Democrat-Republican, took office on March 4, 1801.

Detailed explanation-3: -Outgoing President John Adams quickly filled the new positions with Federalist lifetime appointees, known as the “midnight judges.” When Democratic-Republicans gained a majority in Congress the following year, they repealed the 1801 act and abolished the new judgeships.

Detailed explanation-4: -Just weeks before Thomas Jefferson was to begin his presidency in 1801, incumbent John Adams appointed John Marshall as the young nation’s fourth chief justice.

Detailed explanation-5: -One of the judges on the Supreme Court appointed by Adams was Chief Justice John Marshall. The Act also reorganized the district courts, creating ten. These courts were to be presided over by the existing district judges in most cases.