Federal Court System
APGOPO review #1
The Federal Court SystemI. Four Characteristics
a. Adversarial
1. Impartial
Arbiter=Judge
2.The PLAINTIFF
3. The DEFENDANT
B. PASSIVE
1.
2.
c. Jurisdiction
1. Jurisdiction=The court’s authority to hear
a case
2. Types of jurisdictiona. Original jurisdiction=
b. appellate jurisdiction=
c. exclusive jurisdiction=
d. Concurrent jurisdiction=
Characteristics continued
• D. It’s A Complex Dual System:
– 1.Federalism—we have two court systems
– 2. Each of the 50 states has its own court system
97% of all criminal cases are heard in the states
court systems
- 3. Federal Judiciary spans the entire country
II The Federal Court System
• A. The Constitution
– 1.
– 2.
b. The Judiciary Act of 1789
• 1. Established the basic 3 tiered structure we
have now
Trial tier includes
many types of
The three tiers are:
courts, such as the
The Supreme Court
District Court,
• Trial tier
is where appeals
Bankruptcy Court,
from decisions in
Court of Federal
the Court of
• Appellate tier
Claims and other
Appeals are taken.
courts with
The decision of the
• Supreme Court
specialized subject
matter jurisdiction.
The Appellate tier is the US Court of
Appeals, to which an appeal of
decisions from any trial level court may
be taken.
Supreme Court is
final.
Judiciary act of 1789
• 2. Size of the Supreme court set at 6. Later
expanded to 9 in 1869.
Congress sets the number (Checks and Balances
is EVERYWHERE!) It is ubiquitous.
c. District Courts
District courts
• 1. 700 judges in 94 district courts.
• 2. District courts handle over 300000 cases a
year, or about 80 percent of federal case load
• 3. Most cases end in a plea bargain.2 percent
of the cases are decided by trials.
d. Court of Appeals
• 1.Appellate—appeals
• 2. They do not hold trials or hear testimony.
Supreme Court
• 1.“Court of Last resort”
• 2. The final arbiter of the Constitution and
establish precedents that are binding on the
entire nation
III The Selection of Judges
• Lower courts---all federal judges are
appointed by the president and confirmed by
a majority vote of the senate( NOTE: not
Congress…just the senat
• Senatorial courtesy is weird. So I wrote it
down in your notes
B. Supreme Court nomination criteria
1. Nothing official but…Competence, ideology,
and recently…race gender,
ethnicity…important
2. FBI and ABA checks and VETTING is intense
3. Hearings in Senate Judicary
IV How the Supreme Court Works
• A. Selecting Cases
– 1. The Supreme Court exercises original
jurisdiction in cases involving the following:
– A. Two or more states
– B. The Us and a state government
– C. The Us and foreign ambassadors and diplomats
Writs of Certiorari
• an order by the court to direct a lower court
to send up the record in a given case for
review
• A. only 3 causes a year @ from original
jurisdiction
• B. Order of the court to direct records on the
given case
Rule of Four
• Supreme Court clerks screen approximately
9000 petitions that come to the Supreme
Court each term.
• Extremely intelligent people sort nad
Solicitor generals who go on to
Supreme Court justices
Insulated?
• 1. Appointed for life
• 2. Salaries cannot be reduced
• 3. the Certiorari process allows the court to
set their own agenda
• 4. the public has limited access to court
proceedings
Or Sensitive to Public opinion?
• 1. Scotus appointment and confirmation
process
2. State legislatures and Congress and Amend
the Constitution
3. Congress can change the courts appellate
jurisdiction
4. Judges can be impeached (15 have been)
5. Congress can change the number of justices
on the court