Judiciary Cards Flashcards
criminal law versus civil law
criminal law:
- violations of specific laws
- generally includes harm to others or society
- usually ends with fines or imprisonment
civil law:
- dispute between two parties
- deals with statutes and common law
- divorce, custody, property ownership
who are three regular participants in the judicial system (other than judges)?
litigants, attorneys, and groups
justiciable participants
classification of an issue as being capable of being settled in the matter of law
constitutional courts versus legislative courts
const courts:
- lower federal courts
- general jurisdiction
legislative courts:
- specialized purposes
- Court of Military Appeal and Court of Federal Claims
district court: how many courts and judges total?
- 91 courts total
- 678 judges total
district courts: what do they deal with?
- deal with lots of different things that deal with the federal proceedings but are the only federal courts that hear original cases and decide the original jurisdiction
- a lot of cases at this level get appealed to higher courts
district courts: policy implications?
no large policy implications but a lot of cases at this level get appealed
court of appeals: how many court and judges?
12 courts and 6-28 judges
court of appeals: what do they deal with?
focus on correcting errors in original proceedings of cases, DONT HOLD TRIALS
court of appeals: policy implications?
set precedent for all courts and agencies below them
supreme court: number of justices?
9 but can be changed if mandated
Supreme Court: what do they deal with?
hear cases regarding bigger federal dealings, usually regarding states, foreign diplomats, and the USA
supreme court: policy implications?
have the power of judicial review to review if things are constitutional or not
-overarching control over laws and amendments
who assigns/nominates all federal judiciary positions?
the president
what is the role of the US attorney?
- represents the fed. gov.
- prosecutes violations of federal law
- represents the USA in civil cases
senatorial courtesy
- unwritten tradition
- basically if a senator of the presidents party opposes a judicial nomination in their state, the nomination usually won’t get approved by the rest of the Senate
what power does senatorial courtesy give the senate?
basically gives them the power to choose the judiciary positions because if someone doesn’t like a candidate, they can choose not to approve them
what are three conditions in which nominations to the supreme court are more likely to run into trouble?
- presidents whose party are in the minority in the senate (less likely to approve of nomination)
- nominations done at the end of a term
- nominations whose views are more distant from the norm in the senate
what is the general demographic of a federal judge?
white, male, previous attorney, many years of experience as a judge, involved in partisan politics
6 pieces of criteria that have been important in deciding justices
- partisanship
- ideology
- geography
- past decisions
- religion
- legal credentials
solicitor general functions
- decide whether to appeal cases the government has lost in lower courts
- review and modify the briefs presented in appeals
- represent the government before the supreme court
- submit an amicus curiae brief on behalf of a litigant (if the government has an interest but not directly involved
amicus curiae brief
a brief submitted b someone who isn’t on either side of the case: serves as a third opinion
majority opinion
an opinion agreed on by more than half
dissenting opinion
an opinion written by a judge that disagrees with the majority
concurring opinion
opinion written by a judge that agrees with the majority opinion but for different reasons
stare decisis and precedent difference
precedent: the idea that judges should decide cases based on how past, similar cases have been decided
stare decisis: the actual act of upholding precedence
interpreting population in judicial implementation
judges and lawyers that learn how to interpret and carry out the decision in the future
implementing population for judicial implementation
people that implement the decisions, including police officers, first responders, etc
consumer population in judicial implementation
the population of people directly affected by the decision
principle of judicial review
the supreme court can review legislation and amendments to decide whether or not they uphold constitutional value and have an overall say on whether or not something goes into law
warren court traits
- liberal
- judicial activism
- brown v board, gideon v wainwright
burger court traits
- conseravtive
- judicial activism
