Courts established under the Constitution and laws of the United States
The United States Federal Court is a court established in accordance with the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States.The United States Constitution only specifies the establishment of the Supreme Court, and the other courts are authorized by the United States Congress.
AmericanjurisdictionIt belongs to the federal court, and judges hold tenure.Judicial review powerIt is not only a restriction to Congress, but also a restriction to the President, because many laws passed by Congress come from the President's proposals.Of course, the federal courts are also subject to the President and Congress.First, judges should be appointed by the President, and Congresssenateapproval;Second, Congress has the power to impeach judges.
The United States Federal Court isUS Federal GovernmentA part of, which can be divided into ordinary courts andspecial court。Ordinary courts are divided into three levels, from bottom to top:
The United States federal court system consists of 94 federal district courts, 13 federal appeals courts and one Supreme Court.
District Court District Map
1. Federal District Court
Each state has at least one district court, and larger states may have two to four district courts.presentCaliforniaThere are four district courts with offices inSan Francisco、Sacramento、Los AngelesandSan Diego。New YorkState andTexasThere are also four district courts.There are 89 district courts in 50 states of the United StatesDistrict of Columbia、Puerto Rico、US Virgin Islands、Guam、Northern Mariana IslandsEach has a district court, and there are 94 federal district courts in total.Each district court has at least one judge and a total of 576 district judges.New York City basedNew YorkThe Southern District Court has the largest number of judges, 27.Judges of federal district courts are appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate and serve for life.The District Court is the court of first instance jurisdiction, and also the "hardest working" court in the federal judicial system.These 91 federal district courts have only federalJurisdiction。However, the cases heard by federal district judges may involve citizens of different states. At this time, they should also apply the laws of the relevant states.Most of the cases decided by the federal district court can be appealed to the federal appeals court, and a few can be directly appealed to the Supreme Court.
A district judge may appoint a clerk, a bailiff, a legal clerk, a court report publisher, a court recorder, etc. to assist him in his work.But the most important role is the federal law enforcement officer.There are 287 full-time and 168 part-time federal law enforcement officers.They are also appointed by district judges, but need to be composed of residents of the federal judicial districtjurorPanel review.The term of office of the law enforcement officer is eight years. Its duty is to issue an arrest warrant and decide whether the arrested person shouldGrand juryprosecution.Each district court also has a federal executive officer, who is appointed by the President and supervised by the federal attorney general. His main responsibilities are to maintain court order, implement arrests, execute court orders, and summon witnesses.
2. Federal Court of Appeal
The 50 states of the United States are divided into 11judicial circuit , in addition, the capitalWashington, D.CAs a circuit district, each circuit district has a federal court of appeal, with a total of 12 courts of appeal.Each circuit district has different scope of jurisdiction, for example, the second circuit district only governs New York andConnecticutTwo states, under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit DistrictCaliforniaetc.the pacific oceanCoastal andHawaii、AlaskaNine states, plus Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
There is also a special "Federal Circuit", whose appellate court is calledCourt of Appeals for the Federal CircuitIt is composed of 12 judges nominated by the President and appointed with the consent of the Senate. Its office is also located in the District of Columbia.The appellate court has the same status as the other 12 appellate courts, but its jurisdiction covers the whole country, and its jurisdiction is limited to hearing cases involving patents, trademarks, copyrights, contractsDomestic taxesAnd the judgments of the Claims Court and the International Trade Court.Therefore, there are two courts of appeal in the District of Columbia, one is the District of Columbia Court of Appeal, and the other is the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. The two are different.
Each federal appeals court has 6 to 28 judges, who are also nominated by the President and appointed for life with the consent of the Senate.appeal courtTrial of casesGenerally, the court is composed of three judges, but especially important and controversial cases require the presence of all judges.The Court of Appeal only appealsJurisdiction, accept appeals of cases decided by the federal district court in the jurisdiction, and also reviewFederal Trade CommissionThe actions of independent regulatory bodies.
The Supreme Court, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Federal District Court are established in accordance with Article 3 of the Constitution, so they are called "constitutional courts", also known as "Article 3 courts of the Constitution", but they all belong toGeneral jurisdictionThe courts of.In addition, there are special constitutional courts established by the Congress, such asunited statesInternational Trade Court, United States Claims Court.
In addition, there is another kind of court that is not set up according to Article 3 of the Constitution but set up by the Congress for some special purposes, or that is, the court set up by the Congress to exercise the legislative power conferred by Article 1 of the Constitution, which is called "legislative court" or "Article 1 court of the Constitution".Judges of legislative courts are generally appointed by the Congress for a specific term of office and are entrusted with non judicial functions. Their selection and appointment procedures are also different from those of constitutional courts.Such as the United StatesCourt of Military AppealApplication of trial casesmilitary law, composed of three civilian judges, appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate for a term of 15 years;Bankruptcy courtJudges are appointed by the Federal Court of Appeal as a subsidiary organ of the Federal District Court to hear bankruptcy related cases.
3. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States is a court established directly by the explicit provisions of the Constitution, and is also the court of final appeal in the federal courts.In 1790, it was established according to the judicial regulations of 1789. The number of its members has increased and decreased several times. In 1869, the Congress passed a decree stipulating that the Supreme Court was composed of one personchief justiceAnd eight justices.In the 1930s, the Supreme Court announced a series ofNew Deal LegislationIt was unconstitutional, which caused President Roosevelt's dissatisfaction. He won an overwhelming victory in re-election in 1936. He proposed to the Congress a bill to reorganize the Supreme Court in 1937, increasing the number of judges in the Supreme Court to 15, so as to pass“mix sand into cement— inject new blood into an inflexible organization to spur change”To change the attitude of the Supreme Court.However, this bill was not passed by the Congress, so,United States Supreme CourtIt is still composed of nine judges.
United States Supreme CourtThe jurisdiction of is divided into the jurisdiction of first instance and the jurisdiction of appeal.Its jurisdiction of first instance only applies to two types of cases: one is cases involving ambassadors, other envoys and consuls, and the other is all cases in which a state is a party.In the second kind of cases, the jurisdiction of the first instance of legal disputes between states is exclusive to the Supreme Court.And a statefederal governmentLitigation between one state and anotherPolitical entities、body corporateOr between citizens, although the Supreme Court has the jurisdiction of first instance, the Supreme Court can also let the lower federal courts go to the first instance.
In addition to the above two types of cases, the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over all other cases within the scope of federal jurisdiction, and must "comply with the exceptions and regulations stipulated by Congress", which means that the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is subject to the control of Congress and is determined by Congress.Cases involving federal issues can be directly appealed to the Supreme Court by the state Supreme Court. However, the workload of appeal cases is too large, so the Supreme Court can only select and review the most important cases.Every year, the session of the Supreme Court lasts from the first Monday in October to June of the next year.In a trial period, the Supreme Court has to deal with about 5000 cases, which actually only accounts for about 3% of the cases handled by the Federal Court.In most cases, the Supreme Court only makes a brief judgment, and believes that it is unnecessary to review it on the grounds of "unsatisfactory" or "insignificant".There are about 200 to 250 cases judged by the Supreme Court every year.However, the Supreme Court must review certain cases, including:final judgementIn the case of denying the validity of the United States treaties and laws, the final judgment of the Supreme Court of the state supported the case of the state laws that conflict with the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled the case of the invalidity of the state laws that conflict with the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States, and the case of the federal district court declaring the laws enacted by Congress unconstitutional in the judgment,With the federal government or any of its agencies or officials as one partycivil actionCertain other decisions of the Federal District Court.
The Supreme Court has the discretion to decide which cases it wants to hearSubstantiveRefusal to accept an appeal case on the ground of "federal issues" or "no appropriate federal issues";It can also issue a "case transfer order" to transfer important cases it deems worthy of trial to the Supreme Court for review.Whether it is to accept an appeal case or to transfer an important case, the consent of four judges is required.Whether the Supreme Court accepts a case depends not on the significance of the case to the parties, but on the importance of the case to the "operation of the whole government system".
The chief justice of the United States Supreme Court isAmerican political systemOne of the most important roles in.Like the other eight justices, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is nominated by the President and appointed with the consent of the Senate.However, he presided over the quadrennial presidential swearing in ceremony and supervised the president to take the oath stipulated in the Constitution. In form, he gave the new president the legal status andConstitutional power。He is also the chairman of the Supreme Court, and as the number one official of the entire federal judicial system, he carries out the management responsibility.But he is only the "Chief Justice" rather than the "President".The so-called "chief" means that his role is just to act as the "leader among colleagues".His power and influence are mainly "persuasion" rather than orders.Except for management duties and slightly higher salaries, the Chief Justice has the same power as other justices when making judgments.But the Chief Justice may use his judicial opinions to influence other justices. He presides over the hearing andCourt debate, preside over the meeting to discuss the case, and can put forward suggestions for handling the case, arrange and assignjudgmentWriting of.At the secret meeting to discuss the judgment, the Chief Justice has the right to speak first, which can play the role of "setting the tone".When voting on the judgment, the Chief Justice has the last vote. If other judges have two different opinions and the number of votes is equal, his vote is decisive.Therefore, the Chief Justice has a great influence on the judgment process and the judgment result, and plays an important role in the political history of the United States.so farAmerican historyThere have been 16 chief justices of the Supreme Court, the most famous of whom areJohn Marshall And Roger B. Tanny, Harlan F. Stone in the 1940s, post-warEarl WarrenAnd Warren Berger, etc.Marshall served the longest time, from 1801 to 1835, a total of 35 years.However, after entering this century, the term of office of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is less than 20 years.William Howard Taft It is a politician who served as President before becoming Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in American history.
All the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States form a court. In principle, all the judges should attend the trial.Before the Supreme Court starts hearing a case, the judges should read the "pleadings" submitted by all parties to the lawsuit, including the legal arguments put forward by all partiesHistorical materialsAnd relevant precedents, some of which may be hundreds of pages long.In addition to the parties to the proceedings, the Supreme Court may also receive“friend of the court”The pleadings submitted by individuals, groups, companies or government agencies can be used as amicus curiae to express their concern about the case and provide relevant information. This becomesinterest groupA means of exerting pressure on the Supreme Court.Even the President will use amicus curiae to persuade the Supreme Court to change its mind through the Justice Department of the federal government.In one case in 1989, the Supreme Court received 78 amicus curiae briefs.
The Supreme Court held a hearingOral argumentThe lawyers of all parties to the lawsuit will defend the case. The time for defense is limited to half an hour, or one hour.However, when lawyers make oral statements, the judges may be absent-minded. Therefore, someone has made such a description: they may whisper or look through the materials. When they find the lawyer's statements particularly boring, they will deliberately exaggerate their watches from time to time.
After reading and studying the pleadings and hearing the oral arguments, the Supreme Court will hold a meeting to discuss these cases.This kind of meeting is held in secret under the auspices of the Chief Justice every Wednesday afternoon and Friday all day, so it is called "behind the scenes activities".Its decisions are made by voting, and nine judges, including the Chief Justice, have the sameright to vote。Civil WarDuring the post reconstruction period, because the Supreme Court stifled the reconstruction achievements in a series of judgments, which aroused sharp criticism of the Supreme Court from the Congress, the House of Representatives passed a bill in 1868, requiring the Supreme Court to have a two-thirds majority to declare aAct of CongressIt is unconstitutional.However, the Senate rejected the bill.Since the establishment of the Supreme Court, decisions have been made by majority votes.After the voting, a judgment opinion will be drafted according to the voting results.When the Chief Justice stands on the side of the majority, he appoints a judge to draft the judgment.If the Chief Justice isMinority The senior judges of most parties will assign the judges to draft.But every judge can write his own opinion on secondment, whether he agrees with the majority opinion or not.The minority judges can write their own dissenting opinions, and the majority judges can also write concurrent secondment opinions if they agree with the result of the judgment but have different reasoning reasons.For example, in 1952, the Supreme Court decided to take oversteelIn the judgment of the factory case, it was ruled by 6 votes to 3 that the President's takeover was a usurpation of legislative powerUnconstitutional actThe majority sent Judge Black to draft the judgment. The other five judges who were in favor of the judgment wrote their own opinions. Chief Justice Vincent drafted the judgment on behalf of the three minority judgesObjections, defending Truman's actions.In this way, the judgment includes seven different opinions. Of course, this kind of judgment is not as influential as the unanimous majority and unanimous judgment, because this kind of judgment itself is "ambiguous and dazzling".
