Over the past three decades, the Supreme Court has led a historicist revolution in equity jurisprudence. In a series of decisions known as the "new equity" cases, the Court has sought to limit federal equitable remedies to the forms of relief typically issued by the English Court of Chancery at the Founding. It has read this stringent limitation into various federal statutes that refer to equity-from the Employment Retirement Income Security Act to the Judiciary Act. But these cases miss the mark on their own quasi-originalist terms. By focusing on statutes as the basis for the judiciary's power to grant equitable relief, the Court has overlooked the underlying source of that power: the provision of Article III that extends "[t]he judicial Power" to cases in "Equity." This rticle uncovers federl equity's constitutionl source. pplying the Supreme Court's historiclly inflected methodology, it rgues tht "[t]he judicil Power" in "Equity" is best under-stood s vesting the federl courts with inherent power to grnt equitble relief. Tht power is coextensive with the remedil uthority of the Founding-Er English Chncellor. Put simply, rticle III empowers federl courts to pply the system of equitble remedies dministered by the Court of Chncery in 1789 s the bseline of federl equity power. Thus, bsent express congressionl ction (which is rre), it is rticle III itself-not federl sttutes-tht defines the limits of federl equity. Returning equity to its constitutionl source suggests tht the judiciry hs greter leewy to develop the federl system of equitble remedies thn the Court's time-bound new equity cses seem to permit. To be sure, the remedil power incorported by rticle III ws not illimitbly flexible. Founding-Er Chncellors were bound by settled rules from which they did not deprt bsent legisltive uthoriztion. But nor ws it fixed in time. Chncery could elborte the system of equitble remedies in grdul, ccretive, precedent-bsed wy. rticle III vests n equivlent power in the federl courts. By ignoring this power nd insted tying federl equity to prticulr sttutes, the Court hs, in the nme of fidelity to history, dopted n historicl, crmped understnding of the federl equity power.
