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386 Edyta SokalskaFrom 1789 to 1855 the number of states increases to thirty one. Thelogic of the 1789 judiciary act dictated that new states and territories havetheir own district and their own circuit courts. Congress created new circuitsand gradually increased the size of the Supreme Court to provide justice forthem. The number of circuits reached its high point in 1885. Congress thatyear created a separate California Circuit. The Supreme Court reached itslargest size in 1863.Before the Civil War, a growing economy and the emergence of thebusiness corporation increased the federal courts’ workload as their decisionscreated the legal conditions for the growth and expansion in maritime tradeand in domestic commercial activity. Congress steadily expanded the SupremeCourt’s jurisdiction. After the Civil war came statues to promote andregulate economic growth, the enforcement of which fell to federal courtsthrough the diversity of jurisdiction or pursuant to statutory grants of jurisdiction.The definitely expanded federal court jurisdiction, especially thatestablished by the 1875 Judiciary act, had two effects. It established thefederal courts’ preeminent role as protectors of constitutional and statutoryrights and liberties and as interpreters of the growing amount of federalstatues and administrative regulations.Since 1891, the Federal courts have achieved administrative autonomyfrom the executive branch. Congress in 1939 shifted budgetary and personnelresponsibility from the Department of Justice to the newly created AdministrativeOffice of the U.S. Courts and directed the Administrative Office tofunction under the supervision of the Judicial Conference of the UnitedStates 22 . In 1967, Congress created the Federal Judicial Center, an agency toprovide federal court research and education, and in 1984, it created theU.S. Sentencing Commission to promulgate presumptive guidelines for thesentences of federal offenders.3. The federal court systemThe United States federal courts comprise the judiciary branch of thefederal government of the United States organized under the Constitutionand laws of the federal government of the United States. The Constitutiongives Congress the power to enact statues for certain limited purposes likeregulating interstate commerce and, in fact, federal law originates with theConstitution. Almost all statutes have been codified in United States Code.A huge number of statutes gives executive branch agencies the power to22 R.R. Wheeler, Origins of the elements of Federal Court Governance, Federal JudicialCenter, Washington 1992, p. 2–10.