THE FEDERAL COURT SYSTEM
l   The United States has a dual court system, comprised of both federal and state courts.

•      The United States federal courts derive their power from Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution. This section describes the jurisdiction, or the authority to hear and decide cases, of the federal courts. The Constitution says that the federal courts have jurisdiction in cases that meet at least one of the following criteria.

l   The case involves a federal question.

COURT SYSTEM

l    1.  A federal question is a legal question that is based, in whole or in part on the U.S. Constitution, a treaty or federal law. An example of a case asking a federal question would be one in which a plaintiff asserted his or her civil rights as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights (to free speech, or the free exercise of religion, for people).

l    2. The case involves diversity of citizenship.

l    3. Diversity of citizenship means that the parties to a lawsuit are from different states, or that a U.S. citizen is suing a citizen or government of another country.

 COURT SYSTEM

l   1. These cases require a minimum of $75,000 in contest

l   2. Another important criteria is that the party bringing a law suit must have "standing to sue." That is, the party must be justified in bringing the suit, and there must be a justiciable a (real, not hypothetical) controversy.

 THREE TIERED MODEL

l   U.S. District Courts are trial courts with general jurisdiction.

l   Each state has at least one federal district court, and there are now a total of 94 districts.

l   U.S. Courts of Appeals are appellate courts that hear appeals of decisions of the U.S. District Courts located within their circuit. The Thirteenth Circuit (the Federal Circuit) has national appellate jurisdiction for cases involving the U.S. government.

 THREE TIERED MODEL

l   In appellate cases, the cases are not re-tried. Rather, a panel of judges reviews the transcript of the trial and the decision, and they decide if a mistake was made. The decisions of the appellate panels are nearly always final, the rare exception being when the U.S. Supreme Court opts to hear an appeal.

 THREE TIERED MODEL

l  The United States Supreme Court is the highest court in the country. It has jurisdiction to hear both original and appellate cases. Nearly all of its cases are appellate cases, with the original jurisdiction being either the U.S. District Courts or the highest state courts (it will exercise this prerogative only if the case has federal jurisdiction, as defined in B 1 or 2).

 The Supreme Court at Work

  l    The Supreme Court begins the first Monday in October and usually adjourns in late June. The nine justices must decide which cases to accept during the term, schedule oral arguments, read the legal briefs from all parties in the case, meet in conference to discuss the issues involved in each case, draft opinions of the Court for each case, and finally write the final opinions for each case. The cases that the Supreme Court has heard and their subsequent decisions have impacted our lives considerably. Their decisions have also had important policy outcomes.

 COURT AT WORK

l    A. In the past several years, the Supreme Court has heard cases regarding states' rights, capital punishment, abortion, privacy rights, civil rights for minority and free speech issues.

l    B. Chief Justice William Rehnquist called the selection of Supreme Court cases subjective. Yet there are conditions that increase a case's chance of being heard by the Supreme Court. These include:

l    1.  When two lower courts are in disagreement

l    2.  When a lower court's ruling conflicts with an existing Supreme Court ruling.

 CONTINUE

l   1.      When a case has broad significance (as in desegregation or abortion decisions).

l   2.      When a state court has decided a substantial federal question.

l   3.      When the highest state court holds a federal law invalid, or upholds a state law that has been challenged as violating a federal law.

l   4.      When a federal court holds an act of Congress unconstitutional.

 

CONTINUE

l    1.      When the solicitor general is pressuring the Court to hear a case. The solicitor general in the executive branch, represents the national government In order to issue the writ of certiorari, a minimum of four justices must agree that the Supreme Court should hear the case. This does not mean that all four justices are in agreement as to the outcome of the case in question. Rather they are in agreement this is an important case worthy of the attention of the Supreme Court VI.

 DECIDING CASES

l   Once the Court has decided to accept a case both parties in the case will submit legal reasoning as to how the case should be decided by the Court Oral arguments are also included on occasion, but cases are decided on points of law rather than facts of the case. After all arguments have been made the Court will decide the outcome of the case.

 CONTINUE

l    If the Court is unanimous in the ruling, one justice will be assigned to write the opinion of the Court If the justices are divided on the reasoning of the outcome, there will be a majority opinion and dissenting opinions. Dissenting opinions are important because they typically form the basis for reversal arguments. On occasion there will be a concurring opinion by a justice. This opinion states a differing point of view on a legal issue, but the outcome is in agreement with the majority of the Court