Chapter 14: The Courts

Question 1

Judiciary Act of 1789

Answer 1

• created 6 justices that would meet twice a year
• created system of federal courts (13 district courts and 3 circuit courts)
• district courts each had 1 judge, but circuit courts had 2 court justices and 1 district judge
• section 25 expanding to cases involving conflicts between state and federal law, treaties, or constitution
• Writs of mandamus (section 13)

Question 2

writs of mandamus

Answer 2

gave court ability to uses orders to a lower court, gov official, or gov agency to perform acts required by law

Question 3

Midnight Judges Act

Answer 3

reduced the # of judges on the supreme court from 6 to 5, preventing Jefferson from nominating 2 judges

Question 4

longest serving justice of all time

Answer 4

John Marshall

Question 5

Marbury v. Madison

Answer 5

• judicial review (power to strike down a law or executive branch action that it finds unconstitutional
• section 13 is unconstitutional since it expanded the original jurisdiction of the supreme court

Question 6

district courts

Answer 6

• workhorses of the federal system (94 districts w/ at least 1 per state)
• 678 judges handle more than 250,000 cases per year

Question 7

appeals courts

Answer 7

• hear appeals form district courts

- currently have 11 courts w/ 179 appeals judges and 92 senior judges (MO is 8th district)

Question 8

supreme court

Answer 8

the “court of the last resort” for cases coming from both state and federal courts
-9 justices (has been up to 10 and down to 5)

Question 9

4 was a case can make it to supreme court:

Answer 9

original jurisdiction
cases of appeal
writ of certification
writ of certiorari

Question 10

original jurisdiction

Answer 10

cases involving foreign ambassadors, foreign countries, or cases in which a state is a party

Question 11

cases of appeal

Answer 11

cases in which congress hasn’t determined that they require the court’s attention (not often)

Question 12

writ of certification

Answer 12

cases where an appeals court asks the court for instructions on a point of law never before decided (least common)

Question 13

writ of certiorari

Answer 13

at least 4 of 9 justices agree to hear a case that has reached them via appeal from the losing party in a lower court’s ruling (most common)

Question 14

court cannot offer advisory opinions on:

Answer 14

collusion
standing
mootness
ripeness

Question 15

collusion

Answer 15

the litigants in the case cannot want the same outcome and cannot be testing the law w/o an actual dispute between two parties

Question 16

standing

Answer 16

the litigant must have a personal stake in the outcome; the court ha a lot of discretion in this instance

Question 17

mootness

Answer 17

the irrelevance of a case by the time it is received by a federal court, causing the court to decline to hear the case (ex. death penalty)

Question 18

ripeness

Answer 18

a criterion that federal courts use to decide whether a case is ready to be heard; a case’s ripeness is based on whether its central issue or controversy has actually taken place

Question 19

Rule 10 says a case is more likely to be heard when:

Answer 19

• there is conflict between appeals court opinions
• there is a conflict between a federal appeals court and a state supreme court
• a lower court decision has departed form the accepted and usual course of judicial proceedings
• the case often involves a substantial federal question that has not yet been addressed by the court
• a state supreme court or appeals court ruling conflicts w/ supreme court precedent

Question 20

cert pool

Answer 20

law clerks screen cases that com ego the supreme court and recommend to the justices which cases should be heard

Question 21

stare decisis

Answer 21

the court adheres to the precedent established in previously decided cases (let the decision stand)

Question 22

strict construction

Answer 22

justices defer to the original intent of the constitution, meaning when making a decision they consider what the founders meant when writing the text

Question 23

living constitution

Answer 23

justices argue strict constructionism can make a nation the prisoner of its past (if bound by text alone. frozen in time)

Question 24

attitudinalist approach

Answer 24

most important political factor is justices’ ideology

Question 25

judicial activism

Answer 25

the court should assert its interpretation of the law even if it overrules the elected executive and legislative branches of government

Question 26

judicial restraint

Answer 26

court should defer to the democratically elected branches of government rathe than contradicting existing laws

Question 27

Lee Epstein

Answer 27

2 competing models when it comes to supreme court decisions:
legal model
extralegal model

Question 28

legal model

Answer 28

views judges as constrained decision makers who will base there opinions on precedent and will adhere to the doctrine of the state decisis

Question 29

extralegal model

Answer 29

makes a distinction between law in books and law in action, behooving judges to adopt the latter

Question 30

solicitor general

Answer 30

a presidential appointee in the department of justice who conducts all litigation on behalf of the federal gov before the supreme court supervises litigation in the federal appellate courts

Question 31

partisan election

Answer 31

justices run for election and list their partisanship on the ballot

Question 32

nonpartisan elections

Answer 32

justices run of election but no part labels are listed on the ballot

Question 33

appointment

Answer 33

justices are appointed by either the governor, judicial selection committee, or the state legislature

Question 34

retention elections

Answer 34

justices are appointed, then there is a vote at a later date in which the justice is either retained or removed