The US Federal Court System

Understand the US Federal Court System: levels, jurisdiction, and how cases move from District Courts to the Supreme Court.

The US Federal Court System: What Even ARE the Courts? Watch the video and complete the tasks below Three branches of power The legislative branch (Congress) Comes up with laws The Executive Branch (The President) signs or vetoes laws The Judicial Branch (Federal Court System) Interprets laws How many justices the Judiciary Act of 1789 gave to the Supreme Court? 6 8 13 Fill in the blanks with information from the video. In the first ever session of Congress, lawmakers passed the Judiciary Act of 1789 which spelled out how the whole federal court system would work. Congress decided that there should be three levels of federal courts, with the Supreme Court being the highest. That is how district courts appeared. These are the lowest level of the Federal Court System where trials about federal law happen with one judge, a jury and witnesses. The are a total of 94 district courts today. If you don't agree with the district court you can appeal their decision to the next court up, which is called the United States Court of Appeals. These are 13 courts, each serving a different region of the US, where you can ask higher, more powerful judges to reverse the decisions of the District Court. In the Court of Appeals a panel of three judges from the region reviews your case and they can decide to either uphold or overturn the district court's decision. If you want to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal you have to go all the way to the Supreme Court. What are the reasons that The Supreme Court might want to review a case? the case is something that impacts the entire country courts in different regions of the country have been deciding on similar cases in different ways it wants to establish its power over courts of lawer level Structure of the Court System Watch the video and then answer the questions that follow. original jurisdiction the power of a certain court to hear / decide the case the first time appellate jurisdiction the power of a court to hear a case the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, time etc.. jurisdiction who has the power to decide a case