Judicial Branch Basics
This article of the Constitution establishes the judicial branch, creates the Supreme Court, and grants Congress the power to create lower federal courts.
What is Article III?
This is the highest court in the United States, consisting of nine justices who have the final say on matters of constitutional interpretation.
What is the Supreme Court?
The president exercises this check on the judiciary by nominating all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, shaping the Court's ideological direction.
What is the power of appointment (presidential nomination)?
This is the collective term for the departments, agencies, commissions, and government corporations that implement and enforce federal laws and policies.
What is the federal bureaucracy?
Congress exercises this power to review, monitor, and supervise federal agencies to ensure laws are carried out as intended.
What is congressional oversight?
Written by Alexander Hamilton, this Federalist Paper argues the judiciary is the "least dangerous branch" and defends the need for judicial independence and life tenure.
What is Federalist No. 78?
The Supreme Court uses this Latin writ to signal it will hear a case, typically requiring four justices to agree — known as the Rule of Four.
What is a writ of certiorari?
The Senate exercises this check by approving or rejecting the president's judicial nominees before they can take the bench.
What is Senate confirmation (advice and consent)?
These four types of bureaucratic organizations make up the federal bureaucracy: cabinet departments, independent regulatory agencies, government corporations, and this fourth type.
What are independent executive agencies?
Congress uses this financial power to control the bureaucracy by deciding how much funding agencies receive, and can cut budgets to force compliance.
What is the power of the purse (appropriations)?
This is the power of the federal courts to strike down laws or executive actions that violate the Constitution — first asserted in Marbury v. Madison (1803).
What is judicial review?
These written documents, submitted by parties not directly involved in a case, allow interest groups and outside parties to provide the Court with additional legal arguments and information.
What are amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs?
Congress can use this extreme check to formally charge and remove a federal judge for "high crimes and misdemeanors."
This is the authority given to bureaucratic agencies to use their own judgment when implementing vague or broad laws passed by Congress.
What is discretionary authority?
This federal law restricts bureaucrats and other federal employees from engaging in partisan political activities while on the job, preventing the bureaucracy from being used for political campaigns.
What is the Hatch Act?
Under Article III, federal judges serve under these tenure conditions, protecting them from political pressure and ensuring their independence.
What is lifetime appointment / "during good behavior"?
This judicial philosophy holds that the Court should actively use its power to strike down laws and correct wrongs, even when it means departing from precedent.
What is judicial activism?
Congress can use this power under Article III to limit the types of cases federal courts — including the Supreme Court — are allowed to hear.
What is jurisdiction-stripping?
This stable, three-way relationship between a congressional committee, a federal agency, and an interest group works together to shape policy in a specific area to benefit all three parties.
What is an iron triangle?
Congress, the president, and the courts all have tools to check the bureaucracy. Name one tool used by each: Congress uses committee hearings, the president uses this power, and courts use this power to review agency actions.
What are removal/appointment power (president) and judicial review of agency actions (courts)?
The legitimacy of the judicial branch rests on this doctrine — Latin for "to stand by things decided" — which requires courts to respect and follow prior rulings as precedent.
What is stare decisis?
In contrast to activism, this judicial philosophy argues the Court should defer to elected branches, avoid overturning precedent, and only act when laws clearly violate the Constitution.
What is judicial restraint?
FDR's failed 1937 proposal to add up to six additional justices to the Supreme Court is the most famous example of this controversial court-curbing strategy.
What is court-packing?
Unlike iron triangles, these looser, more fluid networks involve a broader range of policy experts, activists, academics, and interest groups who all share an interest in a particular policy area.
What are issue networks?
These federal employees serve as an internal check on the bureaucracy by reporting waste, fraud, abuse, or illegal activity within their agencies to Congress or the public — and are legally protected from retaliation under federal law.
What are whistleblowers?