The three tiers of the American Federal Court System consist of Trial Courts, the Appellate Courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The Trial Courts tier is made up of 94 Federal Judicial Courts, U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, Court of Federal Claims, and the Court of International Trade. The majority of cases involving federal law or code violations will be heard in a trial court first as they have jurisdiction over most of the federal cases. This includes cases involving drug trafficking, habeas corpus, identity theft, RICO, misdemeanors on federal property, hate crimes, computer fraud, and credit card fraud. Non-criminal cases involving debt repayment and other issues with the parties are heard by the bankruptcy courts. Cases involving customs issues or international trade are handled by The Court of International Trade. Cases involving eminent domain by the federal government, federal contracts, or claims against the U.S. that involve money are heard by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (Hogan, 2010). …show more content…
This is made up into 12 districts within the trial courts with one appeal court in each district. The cases they hear are appeals from the trial courts in their district, specific federal administrative agencies, as well as any appeal in the U.S. concerning patent laws or cases from The Court of International Trade or the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. They will address a case that has been decided by the trial court when one of the parties disagrees with the ruling and file an appeal. Three judges will take another look at the trial with out any new evidence. They will either affirm or reverse the decision by issuing a written order or opinion, and in rare cases remand the case back to the original court with instructions (Hogan,
In the U.S. judicial system, a defendant found guilty in a trial court can normally appeal to a higher federal court. These federal courts, or appellate courts, review decisions made by trial courts (Neubauer, 2010). Appellate courts can be on the federal and state level, but do not hold trials or hear new evidence. These courts consist of a judge, or a lawyer, or a group of either one, who read the transcript of the trial and whether the previous decision correctly or incorrectly followed the law (Neubauer, 2010). Similar to trial courts, the federal government and most states have made two different types of appellate courts: intermediate, which hear all cases, and supreme courts, which can pick and choose the cases heard (Neubauer, 2010). Even though there are many different types of courts within the judicial system of the United States, the role of the judge stays constant throughout the majority of branches.
The supreme court is the highest, most important court in the United States and the titles of the men and women who serve on the high court are associate justices. There are over nine judges who are on the supreme court, eight are associate justices and one is the chief justice. They are all appointed by the presidet but they are approved by the senate. The term of office for the nine judges who serve for the high court is for life. There are over 91 district courts, which are the lowest courts, and 12 appellate courts. Three courts that are part of the federal judicial system are the Court of Military Appeals, United States Claims Court, and United States Tax Court. The nine type of cases the Supreme court and federal courts have jurisdiction over are the constitution, federal laws, treaties, law governing ships, the United States government itself, ambassadors or public ministers, two or more state governents, citizens od different states and a state or its citizens versus a foreign country or foreign citizen. The process of checking the laws of our land is called the judicial review. When the supreme court declares a law unconstitutional, it means that the law goes against the constitution of the United States. In order for a person to be convicted of treason two witnessess must testify, telling the exact same story and/or the accused must confess in a
Basically, there are two types of federal courts: constitutional and legislative. Constitutional courts are presided over by the Supreme Court and
The U.S. District Courts, the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court are governed by Article III of the US Constitution. They also include two special courts: (a) the U.S. Court of Claims and (b) the U.S. Court of International Trade. Often times than not the two
The Federal Court System is one of the most essential and significant functions to help settle a matter. Much work is involved in the application of a body of rules and principals of rulings. The path the Federal Courts have to take in order to be heard by the Supreme Court is a lengthy process. Given millions of disputes every year, it becomes impossible for the Federal Courts to be heard by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has jurisdictions that limit the variety of cases that are clearly defined in the Constitution. The Supreme Court has developed specific rules that within the jurisdictions will and will not hear. The Federal Court must show they have extreme and substantial evidence in the outcome of the case. In mootness, the Federal
The three tiers of the American federal court system consists of the Supreme Court, District courts which are also referred to trial courts, Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court.
The American court system has two different components: the court systems of the various states and territories and then the federal court system. Each state's court system is unique, but most of them generally follow the same basic structure as the federal court system. The first level of court is the trial court. In the United States these are the U.S. District Courts. There are also a variety of trial-level courts with specialized purposes, such as tax courts and admiralty courts.
Many years ago, before courts existed matters was handled in a privately or informally. This often led to violence and unjust treatment of innocent people. During the rise of the Greek City States and the Roman Empire law enforcement became a public affair instead of private. (Siegel, Schmalleger, & Worral, 2011). Along with this movement became formalized courts and other criminal justice institutions. This allowed for law enforcement matters to be handled in a more civilized manner for resolving human conflict.
The criminal justice system holds trials on cases. Most cases are dealt with outside of court. If a case is significant enough and is approved, then it goes to the state court. Most cases do not pass the state court, but if someone objects to the state court’s decision, then the case may go to the federal court. Another way a case is able to be held at the federal court is if the case involves two different states and involves over $70,000. According to crash course, there are four different scenarios in which the federal courts have original jurisdiction (case goes directly to federal court without the interaction of state or local courts). In all of these scenarios the cases must be brought in an original district court. The first scenario is in cases where the law at issue is a federal law. The
They say justice is blind. Laws are made only to protect the interest of the wealthy. Anyone can become a judge, one does not necessarily have to attend school to do so. These are just a few myths about our judicial system, some of which that hold some truth, and others that are inaccurate. In this paper, I will provide history about the type of court structure in Illinois, the process in which judges and lawyers are selected within the state, and how judges and lawyers are disciplined.
There are 94 different federal trial courts call District Courts. The role of these district courts are to hear civil and criminal cases. Those district courts are broken down into 12 different regional circuits, each of the 12 regional circuits have their own court of appeals. These court of appeals deals with appeals within their circuit. Those appeals are then heard and their fate is then decided based on the record that was given before the District Court. All the cases that involve juvenile issues, child custody and Dupree cases, inheritance/probate cases, real estate, as well as most cases that involve criminal prosecution, personal injury cases, disputes and contracts, as well as public health cases. Each state handle local laws, has its own police, and court system. Each court system has its own Supreme Court which is known as the court of last resort. Local crimes in cases go before their local courts and from there it's it is decided whether or not the case goes before the state, supreme, or federal court.
This week’s reading focused on the Judicial Branch of the government. One of the more informative sections from the reading was on the structure of the federal courts. Aside from knowing there was a Supreme Court and district courts, I did not know much on the structure of the United States court system. From the reading, I learned that Article III of the U.S. Constitution made the Supreme Court the highest court level in the US. Article III also gave Congress the authority to pass laws to establish a lower court system under the Supreme Court. This structured our present federal court systems that is comprised of: 94 district level trial courts, 13 courts of appeals, and the Supreme Court.
The United States court system is the institution were all the legal disputes in the american society are carryed out and resolved. However, one single court is not enough to resolve every single dispute in society and that is why the court system is made up of two different courts, the federal courts and the state courts. Moreover, the federal and state courts are made up of several divisions made to handle legal disputes differently depending on its seriousness. For example, the state court is made up of trial courts of limited jurisdiction and probate courts were cases and disputes originate and then move up to trial courts of general jurisdiction, intermediate apellate courts, and courts of last resort respectively depending on the case.In contrast, the federal court consists of district courts, territorial coutrs, tax court, court of international trade, claims court, court of veterans appeals, an courts of military review which then move on to courts of appeals respectively and may ultimately end up in the United States supreme court. In addition, cases from state court may also appeal into the federal court system but not the other way around.
There are three women on the Supreme Court, one of whom is Latina, and there is one black justice serving on the Supreme Court (Brown, 2016). This is a major issue. The United States, the “melting pot”, has an extreme lack of diversity in their court system. This is an issue that affects several aspects of society. Decisions made by judges will affect the lives of men, women, and their families. The decisions made by judges can also create law. Unlike political officials, the people do not always have the power to vote judges into their positions. Instead, the people hope that their peers with the power to affect the system choose a candidate that will fight for them. Often times, this does not happen.
For this observation report, I went to the Cobb County Superior Court on October 26, 2016, from 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM. I observed Judge Reuben Green because he was one of the judges recommended to observe. I decided to observe a court proceeding because I wanted to become less ignorant about how the court system works. There is not much of drama in my family, or at least the kids (myself included) are kept away from complicated drama. Accordingly, I have never had any real-life exposure to the court system before October 26th. All my knowledge about the court system is what I see on television and small things I learned in school. My favorite show involving the court system is How to Get Away with Murder, which is about law students who were involved in different murders and try to hide the evidence.