"Midnight Judges" is a thing……Midnight Riders?
"In February 1801, Congress reorganized the judiciary to constitute six numbered circuits and authorized sixteen new judgeships to serve the circuit courts, thereby relieving the justices of the Supreme Court from circuit riding duties. The judges appointed to the new judgeships were referred to as the "midnight judges" because President John Adams signed their commissions just before leaving office. Republicans were displeased with the new appointments, perceiving them to be a politically motivated attempt to fill the courts with Federalist supporters. This charge had merit, as Federalists saw an expanded judiciary as a safeguard against the elected branches of government, which were soon to be controlled by the Republicans following their dominance in the election of 1800. The act also gave the federal courts jurisdiction over all cases arising under the Constitution and federal law, and made it easier for parties to bring other types of cases into federal court. These changes comported with the Federalists’ view that a judiciary exercising the full range of jurisdiction allowed under the Constitution was essential to the establishment of a strong national government. The Jeffersonians, however, already suspicious of the federal judiciary in the wake of the Sedition Act prosecutions, saw this expanded jurisdiction as anti-democratic and a threat to state sovereignty."
https://www.fjc.gov/history/timeline/8276