¶ … Federal Courts
There are three branches of the federal government: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The federal courts were established by Congress, which is given the power to establish them in the Constitution. The Constitution also empowers the Congress to establish the jurisdiction of the federal courts, determine the number of judges needed in the federal court system, to confirm Executive appointments of judges, and to manage the judiciary's budget. Congress impacts the establishment of the courts in several other ways as well. The various state-level governments have the same three basic branches, and their divisions of power and responsibility are likewise determined by their Constitutions or other founding documents.
The structure of the federal court system can be viewed as a top-down pyramid. At the top of the pyramid is the U.S. Supreme Court, which is the court of final resort for the entire United States. At the intermediate level are the United States Courts of Appeals. These appeals include the 13 regular U.S. Courts of Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Underneath that level are...
These trial-level courts include the 94 U.S. District Courts, specialized courts including Tax Court, the Court of
International Trade, and the Court of Federal Claims, and the Court of Veterans Appeals.
When a lawsuit is filed at the federal level, it is generally filed in one of the District Courts. The District Court functions as the trial level court. Parties may then appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which must hear appeals. After that level, a dissatisfied party may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court's appellate review is discretionary; it only hears a very tiny percentage of the cases appealed from the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Generally, the Supreme Court will get involved when the U.S. Courts of Appeals have given conflicting interpretations to constitutional issues. The Supreme Court has nine judges, but not all judges have to preside over a case and there is no minimum number of judges who must be in agreement for the Supreme Court to issue a decision.
While each of the state court systems has some variation, they are largely structured in ways that are similar to the federal court system. This paper will focus specifically on the state court system in California, though there will be some differences between California's state court system and the state court system in
place in other states. Regardless of the state of initial jurisdiction, a party who has exhausted remedies in the state court system may seek review in the U.S. Supreme Court, but the likelihood that the Supreme Court will hear the dispute is very small.
The California state court system is immense. California has 400 trial courts, with 1,499 judges and 437 commissioners and referees. At the trial level, the trial courts are merged into a single superior court for each county, which has jurisdiction over all
criminal and civil cases…
