Federal Courts & Jurisdiction
This document established the national Supreme Court & gave Congress the power to create lower federal courts
What is: the U.S. Constitution
The three levels of the federal court system, from lowest to highest
What is:
- District Courts, Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court
The total number of justices on the Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice.
What is 9?
The number of justices required to accept a case before it is added on the Court's docket
What is: 4 of the 9?
The phrase inscribed on the Supreme Court building that means every person should be treated the same by the courts ( 4 words ).
What is: Equal Justice Under Law?
The authority given to a court to hear and decide a case
What is: jurisdiction?
The type of jurisdiction that allows an appeals court to hear a case appealed from a lower court.
What is appellate jurisdiction?
The person who appoints Supreme Court justices.
Who is the President?
The written document that lawyers prepare to explain their side of a case to the justices.
What is a brief?
In a civil dispute, the court does this to settle the disagreement. In a criminal trial, it determines guilt or innocence.
What is: decide if something is owed or not
This type of jurisdiction applies when both federal and state courts can hear and decide a case
What is: concurrent jurisdiction?
When an appeals court sends back a case to a lower court to be retried, it's called this.
What is a remand?
The first African American Justice and the first Female Justice served on the Supreme Court.
Who is: Thurgood Marshall & Sandra Day O'Connor
During oral arguments, each lawyer gets this amount of time to present their case.
What is: 30 minutes?
This 1896 Supreme Court case upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine.
What is: Plessy v. Ferguson?
This document left the U.S. with no national court system
What is: the Articles of Confederation?
This written explanation of the court's reasoning behind a decision sets a precedent for future cases
What is a judicial opinion?
This power allows the Supreme Court to review any law or action to determine if it is constitutional
What is judicial review?
The writ that instructs a lower court to send its record of a case to the Supreme Court.
What is a: writ of certiorari?
These two rights are guaranteed to the accused in a trial, with the government paying for the second one if the person cannot afford it.
What is:
- the right to a public trial
- Right to a lawyer
This is the key problem with the judicial system under the Articles of Confederation that made it impossible to guarantee equal justice
What is:
- No national court system
- Each state had its own separate laws & courts
The appeals court can only decide whether this occurred in the original trial, not whether the verdict was correct.
What is a fair trial?
The Supreme Court can cancel a law or action if it determines this about it, based on the power granted in the Constitution.
What is: if it's unconstitutional
This legal principle means " let the decision stand" and is the foundation for how judges make decisions based on past rulings
What is: stare decisis?
The Supreme Court meets for this many months each year to discuss cases, though special sessions can be called for urgent matters.
What is: 9 months?