apgopo review #1 federal court system. the federal court system- i. four characteristics a....
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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
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.
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.
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
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
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