T. M. v. University of Md. Medical System Corporation · ¶62

The Founders accepted this straightforward account of appellate jurisdiction without reservation. The Articles of Confederation gave the Confederation Congress authority to create courts with “appellate power . . . to be exercised in revising the decisions of state tribunals” in cases of captures. Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, 1 Wheat. 304, 345 (1816) (Story, J., for the Court); see Art. IX. In 1780, the Confederation Congress created a court under that authority whose jurisdiction allowed it to “hear new evidence without deference to state courts’” legal conclusions. W. Pryor, The Appellate Jurisdiction Clause, in The Heritage Guide to the Constitution 499 (3d ed. 2025) (Pryor). That power was “appellate” in nature precisely because it was the “power to revise the decisions of state courts.” Hunter’s Lessee, 1 Wheat., at 345; 3 Story 605–606.

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