Judicial Branch
All true statements about the courts:
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The great bulk of American legal business
is transacted in the less-noticed courts.
The Supreme Court decides a handful of
key issues each year.
Supreme Court decision may directly
shape people’s lives.
Federal courts do not hear hypothetical
cases.
• Standing to sue: must have a serious personal
stake in the case, typically determined by
whether or not they have sustained or are in
danger of an injury.
• Class action suits: permit a small number of
people to sue on behalf of all other people
similarly situated.
• One constraint on federal courts is that they
may decide only justiciable disputes.
• The Constitution specifically provided that
there would be a Supreme Court, but left it to
the discretion of Congress to establish lower
federal courts of general jurisdiction.
• Courts of original jurisdiction are trial courts.
• Courts with appellate jurisdiction review the
legal issues involved in a case.
• The Court of Claims is a legislative court
• Most criminal and civil cases never reach trial,
but are settled out of court.
• The vast majority of all civil and criminal cases
begin and end in state courts.
• The jurisdiction of the district courts extends
to each of the following:
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admiralty and maritime law cases.
supervision of bankruptcy proceedings.
federal crimes.
civil suits involving federal questions.
• Most cases heard by the Supreme Court come
from civil actions from lower federal courts.
• The U.S. Supreme Court’s jurisdiction includes
appellate jurisdiction from both state and federal
courts.
• In its investigation of Supreme Court nominees,
the Senate Judiciary Committee may probe a
nominee’s judicial philosophy in great detail.
• The functions of the Supreme Court include
each of the following:
• ensuring uniformity in the interpretation of
national laws.
• maintaining national supremacy in the law.
• resolving conflicts among the states.
• hearing cases involving federal questions from
state supreme courts.
• Senatorial courtesy:
• When there is a vacancy for a federal judgeship, the
relevant senator will suggest one or more names to the
Attorney General and the President.
• Federal judicial nominations are not confirmed when
opposed by a senator of the President’s party from the
state in which the nominee is to serve.
• Presidents usually check carefully with the relevant
senator ahead of time so that they will avoid making a
nomination that will fail to be confirmed.
• Judicial selection in the lower courts:
• The President usually has more influence in the selection of
judges to the federal courts of appeal than to federal
district courts.
• The department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation conduct competency and background checks
on prospective judicial nominees.
• Sitting judges may be asked to evaluate prospective judicial
nominees.
• Nominations to lower federal courts are not confirmed
when opposed by a senator from the state in which the
nominee is to serve.
Selection of Supreme Court Justices
• The President usually operates under fewer
constraints in nominating members to the
Supreme Court than to the lower courts.
• Candidates for nomination to the Supreme Court
usually keep a low profile.
• The President usually relies on the Attorney
General and the Department of Justice to identify
and screen candidates for the Court.
• Opposition to the nominee’s ideology is generally
not considered a valid reason to vote against
confirmation.
• The first woman appointed to the U.S.
Supreme Court was Sandra Day O’Connor.
• The first African American to serve on the
Supreme Courts, who had been the NAACP’s
lead attorney in Brown v. Board of Education,
was Thurgood Marshall.
• The most important factors influencing the
President’s selection of judges and justices
appears to be ideology and partisanship.
• Supreme Court justices often try to time their
retirement so that a President with
compatible views will choose their successor.
• writ of certiorari: a formal document that
calls up a case which deals with a
Constitutional question or in which state laws
are claimed to violate federal law.
• In order for the Supreme Court to hear oral
arguments or decide a case on the written
record, four justices must agree to take the
case.
• Functions of the U.S. Solicitor General’s office:
• review and modify the briefs presented in
government appeals
• represent the government before the Supreme
Court
• decide whether or not to appeal cases the
government has lost in the lower courts
• submitting briefs on behalf of a litigant in a case
in which the governments not directly involved.
• per curiam decision: is a supreme Court
ruling without explanation which resolves an
immediate case but has no value as precedent
because the Court does not offer reasoning
that would guide lower courts in future
decisions.
• Marbury v. Madison established the principle
of judicial review.
• Those who are interested in the outcome of a
case, but are not formal litigants, sometimes
submit amicus curiae briefs, raising points of
view and presenting information that they
hope will influence the Supreme Court’s
decision.
• Principal reasons for the Court’s choosing to
hear a case would include each of the following:
• conflict between different lower courts on the
interpretation of federal law.
• cases that involve major issues, like civil liberties.
• disagreement between a majority of the Supreme
Court and lower court Decisions.
• cases submitted for review by the Solicitor
General’s Office.
• Concurring opinions are those offered by one
or more Supreme Court justices not only to
support a majority decision, but also to stress
a different Constitutional or legal basis for the
judgment.
• A written opinion in a Supreme Court case is a
statement of the legal reasoning behind a
decision.
• stare decisis: meaning that an earlier ruling
should hold for the case being considered.
• Judicial implementation: refers to how and
whether court decisions are translated into
real policy, affecting the behavior of others.
• Statements about the Supreme Court case of Marbury v.
Madison:
• The Court ruled that it had no power to require that
Marbury’s commission be delivered.
• The Court ruled part of the Judiciary Act of 1789
unconstitutional.
• The Court established its power to hold acts of Congress in
violation of the Constitution.
• The Court ruled that it did not have original jurisdiction
over cases involving a write of mandamus.
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• statements about the courts and pluralism:
• When groups go to court, they use litigation to achieve
their policy objectives.
• Almost every major policy decision these days ends up
in court.
• The habit of always turning to the courts as a last
resort can add to policy delay, deadlock, and
inconsistency.
• Agencies and businesses commonly find themselves
ordered by different courts to do opposite things.
• Advocates of judicial activism emphasize that
the courts may alleviate pressing needs,
especially of those who are weak politically or
economically, left unmet by the majoritarian
political process.
• The view that judges should play a minimal
role in policy making is called judicial
restraint.
• A justice on the Supreme Court instructs his
law clerks to notify him when a petition for
review contains an issue that the solicitor
general is particularly concerned about. This
particular justice is relying on Cue Theory to
determine which cases to grant review.
• Know what civil cases are.
• Define plaintiff.
• The Supreme Court’s acceptance of in forma
pauperis petitions reflects the principle of
equal protection under the law.
• Several years ago the states of New York and
New Jersey were involved in a legal dispute
over the status of Ellis Island. Which court
would have original jurisdiction over the
matter?
• US Supreme Court
• The case of a black man named Virgil Hawkins
who tried to get admitted to the University of
Florida Law School illustrates how other
courts and other institutions of government
can be roadblocks in the way of judicial
implementation.
• In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme
Court’s famous Brown v. Board of Education
decision, the President and Congress refused
to enforce speedy compliance with the ruling,
thus severely weakening implementation over
the next decade.
• President Carter appointed more women, African
Americans, and Hispanics to the federal district
and circuit courts than all previous presidents
combined.
• In Federalist #78, Alexander Hamilton argued that
the federal courts’ ability to implement its
decisions in the form of policy would be limited,
because of its inability to enforce its decisions.
• The fact that Miranda v. Arizona required law
enforcement officials to Mirandize suspects
prior to any questioning, even though it does
not say so in the Constitution is a good
example of judicial activism.
• The most effective way a private citizen can
implement Supreme Court decisions is
through filing a lawsuit.
• The fact that the Supreme Court did not
provide a timeline for desegregation in Brown
v. Board, nor specifically defined obscenity in
Miller v. California demonstrates the
influence of public opinion on judicial decision
making.
• What is the quickest and easiest way that
Congress can aid or hinder in the
implementation of a Supreme Court decision?
• Enact legislation.
• Vaguely worded opinions give a great deal of
discretion to lower court judges, who can
freely interpret it.
• The president in recent years who probably
had had the greatest influence on judicial
policy making has been Ronald Reagan.