Factual Friday: The U.S. Court System
I always have SchoolHouse Rock songs stuck in my head. I don’t even know how it happens, I haven’t watched SchoolHouse Rock since I took U.S. History in middle school. But unfortunately, this is my cross to bear. SchoolHouse Rock songs playing on a loop in my brain. Songs I didn’t even give permission to be in my brain! So at the risk of subjecting you to my innermost thoughts, I’ve chosen a Factual Friday theme in honor of SchoolHouse Rock. Today we’re learning about the U.S. court system. Who knows, this might even help you on your AP Government exam!
Hopefully we’re all familiar with the three branches of government. Just incase we’re not, we have the executive branch (the President, VP and Cabinet), the legislative branch (the House of Representatives and Senate) and the judicial branch (the Supreme Court and other courts). The judicial branch is more what we’re gonna be focusing on today so you can forget about the other two branches (for now, but please don’t forget them permanently). My point in reminding you of all of this, is to demonstrate where within our government the court system exists. A text to world connection, if you will. Teachers looove to talk about text to world connections, so there you go, I gave you one. Kinda. Whatever.
Alright so, U.S. court system, let’s get to know her! Our court system has 3 levels of courts: district courts, circuit courts and the Supreme Court. An important thing to note before we dive in, “District courts are ‘trial’ courts, meaning that district court judges have the authority to try cases. The Supreme Court and the circuit courts are appellate courts, meaning that they have the authority to hear appeals of decisions by trial court judges” (adacourse.org). This brings up another important thing to note, to “try a case” means, “to argue a lawsuit in court as an attorney...and decide upon questions of law and fact presented in such an action” (legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com). Okay now let’s dive in!
District Courts: There’s at least one in every state, including, D.C. and the four territories of the U.S. These courts consist of, “the district judge who tries the case and a jury that decides the case. Magistrate judges assist district judges in preparing cases for trial. They may also conduct trials in misdemeanor cases” (uscourts.gov). So, depending on what kind of case they’re trying, that will dictate which judges are present. The role of district courts is simply to decide questions of the law. The cases filed in district courts typically pose questions regarding facts or the law. An example of this would be, “in a criminal trial, there are generally issues regarding such questions as the admissibility of certain kinds of evidence, the scope of a search warrant, or the legality of an arrest. These are questions of law for a trial judge to decide. On the other hand, there are also questions relating to whether the defendant actually committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt” (adacourse.org).
Circuit Courts: The circuit courts are officially known as the courts of appeal (circuit courts were their original name) but both names are interchangeable. Unlike the district courts, circuit courts do not have jury trials because the purpose of circuit courts are to, “handle cases where a party argues that a district court judge made an error in handling their case...Circuit courts review the work of district court judges -- applying one of several ‘standards of review’ -- and issue decisions based on whether or not the lower court's decision was right or not” (adacourse.org). Circuit courts consist of a panel of three judges and they’re all best friends. Nah I’m kidding, but how fun would that be?!
Supreme Court: I’m sure most of us were already at least a little familiar with the Supreme Court since it is the highest court within our system. The Supreme Court is made up of eight associate judges and one Chief Justice. For a case to reach the Supreme Court, it could take one of three routes. The first option, “and least common, is a case under the Court's ‘original jurisdiction’. ‘Original jurisdiction’ means that the Supreme Court hears the case directly, without the case going through an intermediate stage...‘Original jurisdiction’ cases are rare, with the Court hearing one or two cases each term” (adacourse.org). The second, and most common option for a case to reach the Supreme Court is through an appeal from the circuit court. To do this, the party involved in the case files a petition to request the Supreme Court to review their case. Finally, the third way to reach the Supreme Court is through an appeal from one of the state’s Supreme Courts. When a lawyer argues a case in front of Supreme Court Justices, this is known as an oral argument. After the oral arguments take place, the Justices meet to discuss their decisions. The Justices can take one of the following opinions on the case: majority opinion, concurring opinion, dissenting opinion or per curiam.
How lawyers, judges and justices make the decisions that happen in court, is a whole other story. People go to extra school and take extra exams to have those jobs and since I’m going to regular school to take regular exams, that’s probably above my paygrade. But here’s what I want you all to take away from this Factual Friday. It is important to have some understanding of how our government and courts work because both of those institutions will make decisions that impact you. Because they’re such large scale institutions, it’s easy and tempting to be apathetic but I urge you to pay attention, learn more and as always, think critically.
And with that, I wish you a Factual Friday and fun weekend!
Xoxo,
Zoe
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