Chapter 9 - The Judiciary (Court System)

Justices

serve for life, unless die, retire, or break law; serve for life, so are not politically accountable for judicial decisions, and a nominee with strong views or a controversial past can generate great interest.

What are the others types of laws?

Criminal Law , Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Public law, Private Law

Trial courts

(also called district courts or circuit courts) - Courts at the lowest level of the system. They possess original jurisdiction. Courts that listen to testimony, consider evidence, and decide the facts in a disputed situation. Every state has one

What are some common features of a State Courts System?

1) State Supreme Court - the State's highest Court (in 47 states). 2) State Intermediate Appellate Court(s) - found in 39 of 50 states). 3) State Trial Courts of General and Special Jurisdiction. 4) Trial Courts of Limited Jurisdiction(state or local) - (e.g., traffic courts, juvenile courts)

Marbury v. Madison

A landmark case in United States law and the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States, under Article Three of the United States Constitution. The case resulted from a petition to the Supreme Court by William Marbury, who had been appointed as Justice of the Peace in the District of Columbia by President John Adams shortly before leaving office, but whose commission was not delivered as required by John Marshall, Adams's Secretary of State. When Thomas Jefferson assumed office, he ordered the new Secretary of State, James Madison, to withhold Marbury's and several other men's commissions. Marbury and three others petitioned the Court to force Madison to deliver the commission to Marbury. The Supreme Court denied Marbury's petition, holding that the statute upon which he based his claim was unconstitutional.

Which Article of the Constitution gives the Supreme Court its authority?

Article III

There are several types of laws - Which two laws is relates to government-issued?

Civil law and Common law

High supreme courts

Courts generally provide the final source of appeal for each state legal system. All states has at least one except for (Texas and Oklahoma) they has two.

Appellate courts

Courts that determine whether lower courts have made errors of law. 39 of the 50 states has a Appellate court.

Is the size of the supreme court is in the Constitution? If how was that added to the constitution?

It was not addressed in the constitution until throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Congress decided that range of 6 to 10 justices would rule, leaving the total of 9 since 1872. Congress also create and modified federal courts.

Judiciary

The branch of government chosen to oversee the legal system through the court system., A system of courts and judges.

Civil Law (statutory law)

This term has two meanings: 1) refers to the rules and legislative codes, laws, or sets of rules enacted by duly authorized law making bodies such as Congress, state and local legislatures, or any executive authority entrusted with the power to make laws; 2)also refers to the body of non-criminal laws of a nation or state that deal with the rights of private citizens.

To appeal beyond the state supreme court directly to the U.S. supreme court:

a losing party MUST first exhaust all the remedies available at the state level, including losing his or her case at the state system's court of final appeal. He or she MUST also demonstrate there is a federal question at issue whether based on the interpretation of a federal statute or of the U.S. Constitution.

Law

a rule of conduct made by a government body or authoritative rules made by government.

Private law

all parts of the law concerned with the definition, regulation, and enforcement of rights when all parties are private individuals (such as divorce settlement) or when the government sues or is being sued. ex.. when a private person crashes his car into a government mail truck, the government's lawsuit against that is usually a matter of private law rather than public law.

Public law

laws and rules created as the government acts in its official capacity (constitutional, administrative, and criminal laws are all subcategories of this broad category)

Common Law

refers to the ruling judge-made law; handed down by individual judges through their judicial opinions, which over time established.

The Structure of the American Legal System: each court plays specific roles, depending on where it is in the legal structure. The complex U.S. judicial structure can be divided into?

state and federal courts

Constitutional law

the rules and judicial interpretations of rules found in fundamental federal or state laws, such as the U.S. Constitution, normally considered "supreme" and overriding all others

Criminal Law

the rules and regulations that declare behavior that is an offense against society (murder, rape, burglary) and prescribes punishment for this conduct.

Administrative law

the rules, regulations, orders and decisions issued by government or agencies of a government

federal court

were staffed in part by Supreme Court judges who were required to regularly travel to circuit courts ("ride circuit"), and the Supreme Court was seen as a weak third branch of the government.