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Judicial Branch of Government

How It Started

At the Constitutional Convention Framers devoted their time to write Article III, which formed the Judicial Branch

They felt if they created a federal judiciary then the risk of tyranny is slim

Anti-Federalists felt an unelected judiciary poses a threat for tyranny.

Established a dual, three-tiered structure between the federal court and the courts of the 50 states,

U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. Courts of Appeals or appellate courts.

U.S. District Courts or trial courts.

What each court of the federal court system does under Judiciary Act of 1789

Famous Courts: The Marshall Court

Marbury v. Madison (1803): Case in which the Supreme Court first asserted the power of judicial review by finding that the congressional statute extending the Court’s original jurisdiction was unconstitutional

The Judicial Branch is given the power to interpret whether laws are constitutional or not.

The Checks and Balances

  • Judges are free from controls from the executive branch
  • Courts can judge executive actions to be unconstitutional through the power of judicial review

How It Affects Policy-Making

How To Get The Job

  • Nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate

  • Formal nomination is sent to the Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee begins its own investigation

  • Senatorial Courtesy – process by which presidents generally defer selection of district court judges to the choice of senators of their own party who represent the state where the vacancy occurs.

President may have a list of candidates or a specific

individual in mind, but there are six criteria:

-Competence

-Ideology or policy preferences

-Rewards

-Pursuit of political support

-Religion

-Race and gender

How Long Are Terms

  • In constitutional courts, they serve lifetime terms, as long as they engage in “good behavior”

  • In legislative courts, they serve fixed, limited terms

Types of Courts

Constitutional courts: created by the US constitution or by congress pursuant to its authority in Article III.

  • Include federal district courts, the Supreme Court, and the court of appeals.
  • Judges preside over these courts and selected by the President.

Legislature courts: set up by Congress under implied powers, generally for special purposes. The judges here also elected by the President but have fixed, limited terms.

  • US Territorial courts: hear federal cases in territories
  • US Court of Appeals for Veteran Claims

District Courts:

  • are federal trial courts with currently 94 district courts. They cant cut cross state lines. For example, each state has one district courts while popular states like California and Texas have four each.
  • Bulk of the judicial work takes place in district courts.

Cases are heard by one judge with or without a jury. They fall under three categories:

1. Involve federal government as a party.

2. One involved with claim based under the US Constitution, called federal question jurisdiction and it can involve criminal or civil law.

3. Can involve civil suits in which citizens are from other states and amount of money is over $75,000.

Supreme Court:

  • As at the center of most cases that are highly controversial.
  • Takes cases from the district courts or the state senate courts and acts as the final interpreter of the US Constitution.
  • Maintains the supremacy of national laws and resolves conflicts between the states.

Court of Appeals:

  • The loser of a heard case can take their case to the appropriate court of appeals.

  • Have no original jurisdiction. Congress has granted these courts appellate jurisdiction over two general categories of cases: appeals from criminal cases and civil cases from the district courts and the appeals from administrative agencies.

  • When a decision is made by a federal court of appeals a litigant no longer has an automatic right to an appeal. Loser must submit a petition to the US Supreme Court to hear the case but not all are granted.

  • reliance on past decisions or precedents is called stare decrisis: used to formulate new decisions in new cases.

What It Is

Judiciary Act of 1789

Review only findings of law made by lower courts

Court of original jurisdiction where cases begin

This federalist headed the court from 1801 to 1835, he helped establish the role, the power, and the authority of the Court.

The Responsibilities

The Judicial Branch has the following checks over the Executive Branch:

The Judicial branch can declare federal laws unconstitutional, ability to overrule itself, and can reverse earlier decisions.

The Judicial Branch has the following checks over the Legislative Branch:

  • Courts can judge legislative acts to be unconstitutional.

The Executive Branch has the following checks over the Judicial Branch:

  • President appoints Supreme Court and other federal judges

The Legislative Branch has the following checks over the Judicial Branch:

  • Power to initiate constitutional amendments
  • Creates lower courts
  • May remove judges through impeachment
  • Senate approves appointments of judges

More in detail notes and vocabulary is on Google Docs!

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