The First Continental Congress was prompted by the Coercive Acts, known in America as the Intolerable Acts, which Parliament passed in early 1774 to reassert its dominance over the American colonies following the Boston Tea Party. Parliament, outraged by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, in 1774.
The United States is a common law system, which means law is built on cases that came before it. So a Justice, and any Judge/lawyer, looks to precedent when deciding how to proceed in a case.
