1. What do all of these images have in
common? I love you ms anderson!!! From
chris norris
2. Have you had a personal experience with
the court system? If not, what are your
impressions of the court system from film,
television, newspapers, magazines, and
books?
3. What is the overall goal of the judicial
system?
4. A primary purpose of the U.S. court system
is to ensure justice. Do you think it does
that?
“The judicial Power of the United
States, shall be vested in one supreme
Court”
--Article III Section 1
Article III outlines the Judicial Branch in less than
500 words.
As our nation has grown, the number of courts and justices to the
Supreme Court have grown.
The U.S. Constitution does not require the creation of inferior courts.
• The U.S. Constitution was passed in June of 1788 and
began operating in March of 1789.
• Congress promptly moved to create inferior courts by
passing the Judiciary Act of 1789.
• The Judiciary Act of 1789 did several things:
1.
Established a federal judicial system made up of district
and circuit courts and specified the kinds of cases the
courts could try.
2. Laid out the qualifications and responsibilities of federal
judges, district attorneys and other judicial officials.
3. Set the # of Supreme Court justices to six
4. Established the principle that decisions of the Supreme
Court are final and cannot be appealed.
• At the heart of every judicial proceeding is
the law, and at the heart of every law is a
potential conflict.
• Conflicts arise between: individuals,
businesses, interest groups, or society at large.
• The judicial system’s job is to resolve those
conflicts peacefully, in accordance with the
law, and in a manner most parties to the
conflict will see as fair.
• Criminal law refers to legal measures passed
by a legislative body to protect the welfare of
society and to provide punishment for those who
fail to comply.
• The government acts on society’s behalf to
prosecute individuals who break the law.
– Two sides are: defendant (person who committed
the crime) vs. prosecution (the government)
• Defendant – the person accused of a crime.
• Prosecution – the government lawyer or team of lawyers
bringing evidence against the law-breaker.
• People who are found guilty of breaking laws
are punished through fines, prison sentences,
probation or similar penalties.
• Civil law refers to legal measures that govern
conflicts between private parties or sometimes
between a private party and the government.
– Two sides are: Plaintiff vs. Defendant
• Plaintiff – the person bringing the lawsuit to court.
• Defendant – in a civil case is the person who is being sued.
• Examples of civil cases are: disputes over
property, injuries suffered in an accident or
questions about the terms of a contract.
• In most civil cases, one party sues another party
for damages or compensation of some sort.
•Witnesses play a
crucial role in the
judicial process by
providing information
to the jury as to who
did what, when, and
where.
•The most important decisions
in a trial are made by the jury.
•Jury duty is required by law.
•Jurors listen carefully to the
evidence presented to them
during a trial.
•A typical jury consists of 12
people.
•A jury member must be: 18
years old, a U.S. citizen, able to
understand English, & not a
convicted felon.
• The Judiciary Act of 1789
created a dual court
system.
1.
2.
•
•
There are State Courts.
There are Federal Courts.
The Judiciary Act of 1789
created a federal court
system set up alongside
an already created state
court system.
The state courts and
federal courts operate
independently, however,
they can overlap.
• Jurisdiction – the territory over which the
authority of a court is exercised. Also a courts
power to hear a case.
– For example: State courts have jurisdiction over
cases arising under state law.
Federal courts are generally limited to cases
involving federal law or the Constitution.
1. Level in the court hierarchy
– Hierarchy – a system of rank.
2. Geographic reach
3. Type of case
• Each court within the state and federal court system
has a set of responsibilities.
• Trial courts in both the federal and the state systems
are at the bottom.
• Trial courts have original jurisdiction.
– Original jurisdiction – the authority to hear a case for
the first time.
• Appeals courts are above trial courts.
• They have appellate jurisdiction.
– Appellate jurisdiction – these courts have the
authority to review decisions made in lower courts.
– They do NOT second-guess jury decisions by reviewing the
facts in a case. Their focus is on whether the trial in the
lower court was carried out in a fair manner.
• With the exception of the Supreme Court, courts hear
cases that arise within certain geographic boundaries.
• Within a state judicial system, the geographic
jurisdiction of a trial court is usually limited to the city
or county in which that court operates.
• In the federal system, trial court districts are larger.
• Appellate courts are greater than trial courts
• Most states have regional appeals courts and a state
supreme court.
• The federal system has 13 appellate courts.
• The U.S. Supreme Court accepts cases from anywhere
in the U.S., and its territories.
• A case’s subject matter also determines where
it will be tried.
• At both the state and the federal levels, the
typical trial court has general jurisdiction.
– General jurisdiction – the court can hear cases
covering a variety of subjects.
• Some courts have limited jurisdiction. This
means they specialize in certain kinds of cases.
– For example: Traffic courts, Bankruptcy courts,
and Juvenile courts.
• State Court systems are the workhorses of the judicial
system, handling millions of cases each year.
• In 2005, the combined 50 states plus Puerto Rico
totaled around 100 million cases.
• Nearly half of these cases were traffic related.
1. Trial Courts of Limited Jurisdiction
2. Trials Courts of General Jurisdiction
3. Intermediate Appellate Courts
4. Courts of Last Resort or State
Supreme Courts
• These courts specialize in relatively minor criminal
offenses or civil disputes.
Example of this type of court
–
–
–
–
–
–
Justice-of-the-peace courts
Magistrate courts
Municipal courts
City courts & County courts
Traffic courts
Small-claims courts
• These court’s hearings are generally informal and do
not involve a jury.
• Cases heard in these courts can be appealed to trial
courts.
• These courts hear appeals from general trial
courts.
– Appeal – to ask a higher court to review a
decision made by a lower court.
• Most state appeals courts employ threejudge-panels to hear and decide cases.
• The name of the top appeals court at the
state level.
– It is most often called state supreme court.
– They most often convene at the state’s
capital.
• Their jurisdiction includes all matters of state
law.
• The only appeal left after the state supreme
court is the U.S. Supreme Court.
1.
2.
3.
There are three basic routes to becoming a judge:
Election – The oldest method of choosing state judges.
Appointment – Judges are appointed by the governor
or state legislature.
Merit selection – This process combines appointments
& elections.
– Under this system, candidates are nominated by
a committee and the governor appoints a judge
from that list.
– After a fixed period (usually a year), voters are
asked to confirm or reject the appointment in a
retention election.
•In 1803, Marbury v. Madison established the power of
judicial review.
Judicial review has become the judicial branch’s
most important check on the other two branches.
• Article III gives the federal courts jurisdiction in
two types of cases:
1.
Cases involving the Constitution, federal laws, or
disputes with foreign countries.
2. Civil cases involving two different states or citizens
of different states.
•District Courts are
where most cases in
the federal system
begin.
•Ninety-four district
courts occupy the
lowest level in the
federal judiciary.
•District court cases
are tried before a
jury, unless the
defendant waives
that right.
•This is the midlevel
court of the federal
judiciary.
•There are 13 appellate
courts.
•Of the 13 appeals
courts, one deals with
cases that arise in D.C.,
one deals with special
subjects (veterans
benefits & trade issues)
and the other 11 review
cases in circuits made up
of several states.
•The judges who staff
appeals courts sit in
panels of 3 to hear cases.
•From time to time,
Congress has
established special
federal courts to
deal with specific
categories.
•During times of
war, the United
States has also set
up military tribunals
to try members of
enemy forces.
• The Constitution gives the president the power
to appoint federal judges with the approval of
the senate.
– The President submits a nomination to the Senate.
The nomination goes to the Senate Judiciary
Committee for study. If approved by the committee,
the nomination is submitted to the full Senate for a
confirmation vote.
• A senator can block a nomination to a federal
court in his/her home state. This is called
senatorial courtesy.
– Nominations are blocked through a process known as
the blue-slip policy.
Federal judges are
appointed for life.
The only way to remove a
federal judge with
lifetime tenure is by
impeachment.
The only federal
judges not appointed
for life are those
serving in special
courts.
Judges pay can’t be
docked because of
unpopular decisions.
The House of Representative
has impeached 13 federal
judges. Of that number, only
7 were convicted and
removed from office by the
Senate.
The court of last resort in the federal
judicial system.
• There have been 108 male and four female
Supreme Court justices.
• Supreme Court justices are selected through the
same process used for all federal judges.
• When a vacancy occurs on the Court, the
president pulls together a list of possible
candidates to consider. The Department of
Justice conducts background checks of all the
candidates.
• The Senate has rejected around one in five
nominations to the Court.
Ruth Bader-Ginsberg
Clarence Thomas
Chief Justice John Roberts
Anthony Kennedy
Elena Kagan
Antonin Scalia
Sonia Sotomayor
Stephen Breyer
Samuel Alito
• The Supreme Court only hears between 100 to 150 cases
each year.
• The Supreme Court has both original and appellate
jurisdiction.
• Most of the cases heard by the Supreme Court are appeals
from cases that began in lower courts.
• The most common way that a case comes to the Supreme
Court is through a petition for a writ of certiorari.
– A writ is a legal document. A writ of certiorari is a
document issued by the Supreme Court ordering that a case
from a lower court be brought before it.
• For a writ of certiorari to be granted, four of the nine
Supreme Court justices must agree to hear the case.
• Once the Court decides to hear a case, the
attorneys for both sides prepare legal briefs.
– These are written documents, sometimes hundreds of
pages long, that present the legal arguments for each
side in the case.
• Attorneys from both sides appear before the
Court to present their case.
– This phase is known as oral arguments.
• They are only allotted 30 minutes to explain
why the Court should decide in favor of their
client.
• Most Supreme Court decisions either uphold or
overturn a decision made by lower courts.
• If the Court upholds a decision of a lower court, the
case ends here.
• If the Court overturns a lower court’s decision, it may
send the case back to the lower court for further
action.
• Occasionally, the Court reverses a previous decision,
thereby setting a new precedent.
– Precedent – a preceding court case that serves as an
example in future court cases dealing with the same issue.
• Once the Court as a whole decides a case, one
justice will be assigned to write the majority
opinion.
– An opinion is a legal document stating the reasons
for a judicial decision.
• The chief justice writes this opinion if he/she sided
with the majority.
• Justices who disagree with the majority opinion
may choose to write a dissenting opinion. In
it, they lay out their reasons for disagreeing with
the majority.
• Concurring opinions are those justices who
agree with the majority but for a different
reason.
• The most controversial cases decided by the
Supreme Court involve judicial review.
– Judicial Review – the power of the court to declare
a law or action unconstitutional.
• Judicial Activism is based on the belief that the
Court has both the right and the obligation to
use its power of judicial review to overturn bad
precedents.
– Judicial Activist support judicial review. They tend to
be more liberal.
• Judicial Restraint is supported by more
conservative groups. They believe that judicial
review should be used sparingly, especially
dealing with controversial issues.