APGOPO review #1

Federal Court System

The Federal Court System-I. Four Characteristics

a. Adversarial1. Impartial

Arbiter=Judge2.The PLAINTIFF3. The DEFENDANT

 c. Jurisdiction

1. Jurisdiction=The court’s authority to hear a case

2. Types of jurisdiction-a. Original jurisdiction=b. appellate jurisdiction=c. exclusive jurisdiction=d. Concurrent jurisdiction=

B. PASSIVE 1.

2.

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

The three tiers are:• Trial tier • Appellate tier • Supreme Court

Trial tier includes many types of courts, such as the District Court, Bankruptcy Court, Court of Federal Claims and other courts with 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.

The Supreme Court is where appeals from decisions in the Court of Appeals are taken. The decision of the 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 intense3. 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