5: The Courts Flashcards
judicial review (power of ~)
The power to declare con- gressional (and presidential) acts invalid because they violate the Constitution.
common law (judge-made law)
Legal precedents derived from previous judicial decisions.
U.S. district courts
Courts within the lowest tier of the three-tiered federal court system; courts where litigation begins.
U.S. courts of appeals
Courts within the second tier of the three-tiered federal court system, to which deci- sions of the district courts and federal agencies may be appealed for review.
precedent
A judicial ruling that serves as the basis for the ruling in a subsequent case.
original jurisdiction
The authority of a court to hear a case before any other court does
appellate jurisdiction
The authority of a court to hear cases that have been tried, decided, or reexamined in other courts.
docket
A court’s agenda.
judicial restraint
A judicial philosophy by which judges tend to defer to decisions of the elected branches of government.
judicial activism
A judicial philosophy by which judges tend not to defer to decisions of the elected branches of govern- ment, resulting in the invalid- ation or emasculation of those decisions.
concurrence
The agreement of a judge with the Supreme Court’s majority decision, for a reason other than the majority reason.
dissent
The disagreement of a judge with a majority decision.
State courts
***In the United States, a state court has jurisdiction over disputes with some connection to a U.S. state, as opposed to the federal government. State courts handle the vast majority of civil and criminal cases in the United States with federal court supervision varying in scope from minimal to overarching, depending on the area of law and the specific case facts.
The Supreme Court (members, powers)
The Current Court. Seated left to right: Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Standing left to right: Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Justice Elena Kagan.
Powers: Judicial review, *
