Flash Card Quiz

A Writ of Certiorari

Is used by the Supreme Court to call up a case.

The concept of original intent holds that

Judges and justices should determine the intent of the framers of the Constitution regarding a particular matter and decide cases in line with that intent.

Courts may only decide ____________ disputes.

Justiciable

One constraint on federal courts is that they may decide only

Justiciable disputes.

Courts with appellate Jurisdiction

Review the legal issues involved in a case.

About 90% of the more than 50,000 cases heard in the U.S. Courts of Appeal come from

The district courts.

The Court of Claims.

Legislative court

Courts of original jurisdiction.

Trial courts

Those who are interested in the outcome of a case, but are not formal litigants, sometimes submit ___________ briefs, raising points of view and presenting information that they hope will influence the Supreme Court's decision.

Amicus curiae

The customary manner in which the Senate disposes of federal judicial nominations in one state is through

Senatorial courtesy.

Courts with ___________ hear cases brought to them on appeal from a lower court.

Appellate Jurisdiction

________ opinions are those offered by one or more Supreme Court justices not only to support a majority decision, but also to stress a different Constitutional or legal basis for the judgment.

Concurring

If _________ Supreme Court justices agree to grant review of a case, it can be scheduled for oral argument or decided on the basis of the written record already on file with the court.

Four

Most criminal and civil cases

Never reach trial, but are settled out of court.

A _____________ is a Supreme Court ruling without explanation which resolves an immediate case, but has no value as precedent because the Court does not offer reasoning that would guide lower courts in future decisions.

Per curiam decision

Class action suits

Permit a small number of people to sue on behalf of all other people similarly situated.

As a means to avoid deciding some cases, the federal courts have developed a doctrine of

Political questions.

Not everyone can change a law. Litigants must have what is called____________, meaning that they must have a serious personal stake in the case, typically determined by whether or not they have sustained or are in danger of an injury.

Standing to sue

The vast majority of cases reaching the federal courts are settled on the principle of

Stare decisis

The great majority of America's judicial business is transacted in

State courts of original jurisdiction.

Litigants are

The Plaintiffs and the defendant.

Richard Nixon chose __________ as the new Chief Justice in 1969, hoping with his appointment to move the Supreme Court toward a more "strict construction" interpretation of the Constitution in its subsequent decisions.

Warren Burger

The most liberal court of the modern era has been the

Warren Court.

The entry point for most litigation in federal courts is in one of the __________ courts.

District

The only federal courts in which trials are held, and in which juries may be impaneled, are the

District courts.