The Three-Tiered Hierarchy Of The Federal Court System

The Texas State Court system is very structured. There are 5 levels of the Texas Courts. Level 5 starts with Justice and Municipal Courts. Justice Courts have Jurisdiction over civil actions, small crimes, and criminal misdemeanors. The Municipal courts have jurisdiction over municipal ordnance cases and criminal misdemeanors that are only punishable by fine. The 2nd level is the County Level Courts. County Courts have jurisdiction over juvenile matters, misdemeanors with fines greater than 500$ or jail sentence, and probate matters. District Courts are the 3rd level. They have jurisdiction over felonious matters, divorce cases, land titles, and contested elections. The 4th level is the Courts of Appeals, which is the final step before the

This week we are to write about the Judicial Branch. I have chosen the high and almighty U.S. Supreme Court. Section 1 of Article III of The Constitution states that there should be a sole high court, the Supreme Court, that shall have the vested judicial powers of the United States. (The Constitution) The Federal Judiciary Act of 1789 was the landmark statute that was introduced in the first session of the United States Congress. The Judiciary Act established the United States Federal Judicial Branch. Many feared that establishing all judicial powers into a single court would leave the door wide open for tyranny. Not knowing that the three branches of government have a pretty good checks and balance system. The Act would give the Supreme Court

Supreme Court heals appeals from lower courts. These lower courts include the U.S. courts of appeals, and state supreme courts. (284) US Supreme Court Justices decide which cases they will hear, and “may review any decision appealed to it that it decides is worthy of review.” (285) Unlike the Justices of the Ohio Supreme Court, US Supreme Court Justices are not elected, but nominated by the president. Once a justice is confirmed by the Senate, they serve for life. Their power of judicial review makes them the final authority on matters of law and the interpretation of the U.S.

Article Three, Section One of the Constitution states that “The judical power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.”. Throughout the years, the Supreme Court has evolved significantly. According to the United States Courts, the Surpeme Court can range from having a low of 5 members to a high of 10 members, the Supreme Court plays an important role in the government today. Although the Supreme Court of Justice is at the head of the court system, the power of the Supreme Court has grown exponentially to a point where it could be considered more powerful than Congress and the power of

The Judicial Branch incorporates the Supreme Court, the most noteworthy court in the United States, as well as other government courts. The judges of the Supreme Court are selected by the president and must be endorsed by Senate. Federal cases, such as Marbury vs. Madison, made the Supreme Court "a separate branch of government on par with Congress and the" executive branch (McBride, 2007, P.1). The motivation behind this case was to affirm the power of the Supreme Court to survey law, to figure out if or not that law is sacred, and to set up the check and offsets. We see these techniques existing today in our nation, in light of the fact that every branch can check the other to keep one branch from turning out to be too intense from the others, as legal over official can pronounce official activities illegal, official over legal can select Supreme Court judges, Legislative over Judicial can change the size of government court framework and the quantity of Supreme Court judges, and so on. The case, State v. Rose, demonstrated that "Henry Rose was accused of murder after he struck the casualty, David J. McEnery, with his auto and headed out with" the casualty wedged underneath the vehicle (Casebriefs,2012, P.2). The rule of this case was to find the appellant guilty of manslaughter; the jury would have to find that the victim was alive

The Supreme Court priorities from the time period of 1790 to 1865 were establishing the Judiciary Act of 1789, which was instrumental in founding the Federal Court System. The framers believed that establishing a National Judiciary was an urgent and important task. After the installation of Chief Justice John Marshall who “used his dominance to strengthen the court 's position and advance the policies he favored” (Baum 20). However, in the decision of the landmark case of Marbury v. Madison in 1803 was an example of the power he exuded “in which the Court struck down a Federal statute for the first time” (Baum 20). This created some internal conflict between Marshall and President Thomas Jefferson, however Marshall was able to diffuse this with

In the United States government, there are three branches called the legislative, executive, and judicial branch. Out of these three, the judicial branch is the most powerful. The judicial branch is made up of the Supreme Court, the court with the most power in the country, and other federal courts that are lower in the system; the purpose of this branch is to look over laws and make sure they are constitutional and reasonable. This process is called judicial review; judicial review by definition is the “power of a court to declare acts of governmental bodies contrary to the Constitution null and void” (Neubauer and Meinhold 492). Chief Justice John Marshall first brought up this power in the

The judicial review process is an important aspect of the US Court system. The process involves the use of powers by the Federal Courts to void the congress' acts that direct conflict with the Constitution. The Marbury v. Madison is arguably the landmark case that relates to Judicial Review. The Marbury v. Madison case was written in the year 1803 by the Chief Justice at that time named John Marshall. Thomas Jefferson won an election on the Democratic - Republican Party that had just been formed creating a panicky political atmosphere having defeated John Adams of the previous ruling party. Adams had appointed several justices for the District of Columbia prior to being defeated. The senate had approved the commissions and the commissions signed by the president as well as being affixed with the government's official seal. However, the commissions were not delivered, and when Jefferson took office, he instructed James Madison the Secretary of States not to deliver them. William Marbury who was on the list of appointees petitioned the Supreme Court for a legal order compelling Madison to explain why he was not to receive the commission (Clinton 1994).

The District Courts have original jurisdiction and is where most of the violations of federal law as well as civil law are decided. There are 94 district courts divided into 13 circuits in the federal court system to include territorial courts in Guam, Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. The Circuit Courts of Appeals was created by Congress to lessen the load of the Supreme Court just like the intermediate courts of appeals does for the state supreme court. With only appellate jurisdiction, it only reviews cases for errors in the law. The third component of the federal court system and the highest court in America is the United States Supreme Court. In any case that includes the Constitution, acts of Congress, and treaties with nations, the U.S. Supreme Court has the final ruling (Bohm & Haley, 2011). The Supreme Court can hear cases from state supreme courts where federal law as well as the Constitution play a part in them. The Supreme Court will only make a ruling on the federal laws, not the applicable state laws in the

Today the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land and is very important as it was back then. The Supreme Court consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices. The President of the United States still nominates the positions and the Supreme Court is run very similar to the way it was in the beginning. According to the “American Government” the Supreme Court today receives about 7,000 petitions every year. The justices are said to choose around 90% out of 100 of their cases, if four justices vote to hear a case, they out rule all nine. The Court listens and decides on cases as one. The court also still has to power to judge whether the federal, state and local governments are following the

Many people believe the Texas Judicial Branch needs refurbishing for the 21st century. However, the Texas Judicial Branch operates efficiently now because of the way Texas has set up its Judicial Branch and court system. The reason for this is because Texas has structured layers of courts and those layers of courts allow cases ideal time to be heard, which works efficiently and adequately for the court system. At times, those five sections of the Texas court structure overlap because they all proceed to a higher level if needed. Those levels are local trial courts, county trial courts, state trial courts, state intermediate appellate courts and the state 's highest appellate courts. The Judicial Branch also

The Texas judicial system is bifurcated, where there are two supreme courts to serve justice. While one of the “highest courts” serves justice to civil cases, the other serves justice to criminal cases. Tom Phillips, former chief justice on the Texas Supreme Court, stated “Of the ways you can elect judges, Texas has one of the worst systems” (Chammah). Judicial elections in Texas have been impacted greatly by campaign contributions from interests’ groups, PAC’s, and law firms. In addition, partisan elections and low voter knowledge has made it more facile for these interest group to lobby their way into the legislative branch, thus, spreading into the judicial branch where elections count the most.

As defined in the Meriam Webster Dictionary the words Supreme Court is the highest court of law in a country or U.S. state. Also defined in the Meriam Webster Dictionary is the words judicial review it is a constitutional doctrine that gives to a court system the power to annul legislative or executive acts which the judges declare to be unconstitutional.

In Texas, there are two separate high courts: The Supreme Court of Texas and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Having two separate high courts in Texas is good because make this system more professional. However, these two high court heard different cases. The Supreme Court of Texas is the highest civil and juvenile cases, and it is the final appellate jurisdiction in Texas. In contrast, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the highest and the final criminal court in Texas, and the jurisdiction of death penalty cases.

The three levels within the federal courts are: the U.S. Magistrate Courts, the U.S. District Courts, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The magistrate courts are the lowest level and as such are limited to trying misdemeanors, setting bail amounts and assisting the district courts. The U.S. District Courts are the federal branch of original jurisdiction courts. These are responsible for criminal trials and giving guilty or not guilty verdicts. The U.S. Courts of Appeals are responsible for all the appeals from U.S. district courts. They will only review cases in which constitutionality or judicial error is brought into question. The defendant has already been given a guilty verdict and so the question of innocence will not be re-evaluated. However, the appeals court may send the case back to the court of original jurisdiction to be retried, at which the defendant may be determined not guilty in a retrial or the charges may be dropped by the prosecution. The top tier of the federal court system is the U.S. Supreme Court. This court is not mandated to hear the appeals of all criminal cases as is the case with the U.S. Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court chooses which cases have important constitutional issues for review. There are four guidelines