Judicial Branch (Unit 6, Lesson 3) Flashcards
Court the Constitution created
Supreme Court
Congress’ role in creating courts
The Constitution also allows Congress to create other courts. When Congress created those courts with the Judiciary Act of 1789, the federal court system was born.
Federal court system
The federal court system deals with disputes about laws that apply to the entire United States.
Federal courts hear cases involving federal laws, the U.S. Constitution, or disputes between citizens of different states.
District Courts - Courts of Appeal - Supreme Court
State court system
State court systems mostly deal with disputes about state laws. Each state has its own court system created by its own state constitution.
State courts hear cases involving state laws or the state’s constitution. They also deal with disagreements between citizens of the state. State courts normally resolve the kinds of issues you hear about in everyday life, such as family matters, accidents, crimes, and traffic violations.
Civil Case
Sometimes people have a disagreement that they can’t resolve on their own. Often, one side feels that the other side violated their rights in some way. This kind of case is called a civil case. The goal of a civil case is not to find out whether someone is innocent or guilty, but to decide which side’s version of the story is correct.
Criminal Case
Someone has been accused of a crime
Trial Court
The trial court is the first court to hear a case. Both the state and federal systems have trial courts. In the Federal system, the trial court is called a District Court. In the trial court, lawyers use evidence to try to prove that their client’s side of the story is what really happened.
Jury Trial
In a jury trial, a group of twelve people listens to the evidence and decides who wins the case. That decision is called the verdict.
Bench Trial
In a bench trial there is no jury, so the judge gives the verdict.
Making an appeal
If the losing side thinks there’s been an error, they can ask a higher court to review the verdict and replace it with a different decision.
Appellate courts
Courts above trial courts. There are two: Court of Appeals and Supreme Court
Appellate court decision
When an appellate court makes a decision, all lower courts must follow that decision in the future when the same issue comes up again.
In an appellate court, the judges are deciding whether legal errors have been made. For the losing side in the Court of Appeals, there is one more chance: the Supreme Court, which is the highest court.
Article of the Constitution that created the Supreme Court
3
Main job of Supreme Court
Its main job is to decide whether laws and government actions are constitutional, or allowed by the Constitution.
Judicial Review
This power of judicial review came from the case of Marbury v Madison. In this case, President John Adams was leaving office and signed an order making William Marbury a justice of the peace. The incoming president, Thomas Jefferson, refused to carry out the order. Marbury took his case to the Supreme Court.
