Iss 225 John Molloy Final Exam Study Guide Fall Semester 2012

The American federal court system is broken up into three tiers: District, circuit, and supreme. When it comes to the court system they are broken down into several tiers in both federal and state level. When it comes to federal court vs a state court, they jurisdictional. The united states district court is the lowest level in the federal court system. In the U.S district court, they hold the original jurisdiction (where crime took place). In this court they will hear a criminal case where a federal crime has been committed. Therefore, they are heard in federal court. The district will also hear federal civil cases where someone is suing a government agency for example. If someone is unhappy with the outcome, they can bring it to the court

3. What type of jurisdiction did the federal courts have in this case? Was it a federal question case or a diversity of citizenship case? Why?

. While state courts tend to have general jurisdiction, federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. Federal Courts have limited subject matter jurisdiction bestowed by U.S. Const. Art. III, sec. 2. The federal courts are have jurisdiction to decide federal questions (28 U.S.C. § 1331) as well as cases or controversies between two different states or diversity jurisdiction (28 U.S.C. § 1332). There are also specific court jurisdictions. Bankruptcy court can only hear bankruptcy claims, Tax court hears tax claims. Federal District Courts have original jurisdiction in federal criminal and civil cases. The U.S. Courts of Appeals have appellate jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction as well as some general original

The Federal Court system in the United States is used to interpret and make make decisions by the law. There are three main stages of the Federal Court system; the District Courts, Court of Appeals, and the Supreme court. District courts resolve conflicts by applying the facts and law together to determine who is right. They used things like the bill of rights, Constitution of the United States of America, and the 27 amendments. The next stage which is called the Court of Appeals, is used to see if the law was correctly used at the trial/district court. The last court which is known as the Supreme Court is the highest level of the Federal Court System. “Article III of the U.S. Constitution created the Supreme Court and authorized Congress

There are three main levels to the federal court system: district courts, circuit courts, and the Supreme court. There is one Supreme court, 94 district courts, and 13 circuit courts. The federal courts work differently to the state courts. The main difference being, that the federal court can only hear cases authorized by the United States Constitution. The federal courts can hear case dealing with constitutionality of law, case involving the law and treaties of the U.S., disputes between multiple states, etc. The district court has at least one judge, circuit courts have multiple judges, and the Supreme court has nine judges or “justices”. All judges in the federal system are appointed by the president and confirmed by the

In this lesson, we learn that state and federal courts are made up of certain branches which only can hear certain kinds of cases, called Jurisdiction. There are different acceptable kinds of cases such as constitution cases, violation of Federal laws such as tax evasion, counterfeiting money, or kidnapping, and cases between two states (remember that every state in the U.S. has their own court system that handles these cases). Other ones could be disputes between individuals of different states, lawsuits involving the Federal/Foreign Government, and treaty cases. One may also have a case based on maritime laws, or ones involving U.S. diplomats. The website ( ) covers in detail what Jurisdiction is, and different types of Jurisdiction as well.

The Supreme Court is the final judge in any case involving laws of Congress and the Constitution. The Supreme Court has the ability, thanks to the Constitution, to check both the powers of the President and Congress. There are nine justices on the Supreme Court and they are led by the chief justice, currently John G. Roberts. Justices choose the cases they hear each term. They choose from approximately ten thousand new cases annually. The most common route for an appeal to reach the Supreme Court is though a writ of certiorari, or simply a petition for review by a higher court. A minimum of four justices have to agree to accept a case to review. In order to by-pass both the district court and the court of appeals a case must fall under one of the four original jurisdictions which include: cases between one of the states and the US government, cases between two or more states, cases involving foreign ambassadors, ministers, or consuls, and cases begun by a state against a citizen of another state or against another

The next is the district courts, the United Stated courts of appeals, superior to one or more district courts composed of 11 judicial courts established in 1891 by Congress throughout 50 states with six to 27 judges in each. Courts of appeal have jurisdiction in cases involving challenges of orders of a federal regulatory agency as Securities and Exchange Commission (Columbial Electonic Encyclopedia, n.d).

Federal district courts will hear cases that involves any rights or obligations that have arise from the Constitution or other federal law. Federal courts also play apart in diversity jurisdiction; this gives the courts the authority to hear cases involving disputes among individuals that are from different states. This jurisdiction however is limited in because it depends on the amount in that is in dispute in the case, It has to be more than $10,000, because if not the federal question and diversity jurisdiction will not apply which means the cases will have to be brought before the state court. Cited from http://civilprocedure.uslegal.com/jurisdiction/subject-matter-jurisdiction/

At the apex of our federal court system stands the United States Supreme Court. It stands as the ultimate authority in constitutional interpretation and its decision can be changed only by a constitutional amendment. Two documents are responsible for its creation which is the Constitution, which explicitly creates the Supreme Court, and the Judiciary Act of September 24, 1789. The Supreme Court is the only court named in the constitution laying out the Courts basic jurisdiction, identifying the mode of selection and tenure for justices. Under Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution provides that "[t]he judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the

Allowing for appeals to the highest court allows for important decisions to be made that set precedent for the rest of the courts. It also allows for errors made in the lower court to be corrected. The appellate jurisdiction that The Supreme Court holds is granted by The Constitution. In Article III of the preamble The Supreme Court is only limited by the discretion of Congress. In a way this power has more checks in place than the discretionary powers. One major critic of the appellate power of The Supreme Court is that it allows for lower courts to be invalidated. This can lead to less faith in the lower courts and thus undermines the power of the overall judicial system. Another problem with the appeals process is the amount of useless litigation that results from the ability to appeal. The Supreme Court does not often overturn decisions made by the lower courts and thus most of the cases brought to The Court take up time and resources that might be better used. The process of appeals for the Supreme Court solves some of this problem, but does not completely mitigate it. The review process used by The Supreme Court is highly effective and ensures only cases that need the decision of The Supreme Court reach the justices. As such, the appellate powers of The Supreme Court have few issues and serve an important function in the Judicial

There are many difference between grand juries and trial juries. Some of the differences just involve the makeup of the juries while other differences involve functions and processes. For example: (1) grand jury panels are typically larger than petit juries (grand juries consists of 16-23 members whereas trial juries usually consists of 12 members with 1-2 alternates); (2) trial juries are assembled to hear only one case while grand juries are impaneled for a period of time (usually 1 month or more) and will hear many different cases; and (3) in some jurisdictions, citizens can volunteer to serve as a grand juror while trial jurors are summoned by the court for service. Further, to that point, grand jurors are not chosen with “jury of peers”

The Federal and State Court systems both have three levels in their court systems. The Federal is called the tree-tiered structure which is comprising of the U.S. District courts is a court which holds federal trials of the federal system along with they have jurisdiction over all cases with any involvement of alledged charge. The U.S. courts of appeal consist of 6 or more judges, depending on caseloads, hears appeals from the district courts located within ttheir circuit. The third one is the U.S. supreme court who has the power to review decisions of the lower courts with limited jurisdiction along with does not conduct trials only in a dispute between states and attorney disbarment. They also have 5,00 requests per year but only 200 are

The U.S. court system consist of two types of court, federal courts and state courts. Each of the 50 state and the federal courts all have their own rules and procedures. However, both the states and federal courts follow the same structure. First a case is brought to the lowest level, district or trial court. After a case is heard and a decision is made the defendant and /or plaintiff can appeal the decision to an Appellate Court or Court of Appeals. After Appellate comes the highest level of court, the Supreme Court. Both the states and the government have some form of a Supreme Court. There is no court higher than the Supreme Court, meaning that the Supreme Court's decisions if final. Basically, either the defendant or plaintiff can appeal

I. The State of California Supreme Court gains authority and jurisdiction through the Constitution of California, Article 6 Section 1. The authority of dividing the state into division creating the Court of Appeals jurisdictions is giving to the legislature through the Constitution of California, Article 6, Section 3. The legislature has set up six districts for the Court of Appeals based on geography. Within the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals are the Superior Courts of California. The Superior Courts have been created by the authority of the Constitution of California, Article 6, Section 4. The authority of the Supreme Court is given via the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution and is subdivided into the different circuits and districts by authority of the United States Code Title 28, Part 1. In this Code are the needed statutes giving power and jurisdiction to the various federal courts. The court of appeals are comprised of thirteen separate judicial circuits as stated in United States Code Title 28, Part 1, Chapter 3, § 41. This same statute covers the area of California, placing California into the Ninth Circuit