Courts

1. POL 140-03
Spring 2016

4.  Provide Security
 Provide Predictability
 Conflict Resolution
 Reflect and Enforce
Conformity to Societal
Values
 Distribute Benefits
and Allocate Costs of
Society

6.  U.S. system based on English common law
 Importance of precedent
 Sixth Amendment
 "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy
the right to a speedy and public trial, by an
impartial jury..”

8. SUBSTANTIVE LAW
 Actions we can and cannot
legally perform under law
PROCEDURAL LAW
 Establishes procedures
used to conduct the law

9.  Behaviors threatening, harming, or
endangering safety of citizens
 Crimes against State
 Examples: Theft, Assault, Robbery, Murder
 Jail time or community service

10. FELONIES
 Murder, arson, burglary,
kidnapping
 Jail time
MISDEMEANORS
 Disorderly conduct,
trespassing, vandalism
 Probation or community
service

11.  Regulate interactions between individuals
 Plaintiff sues Defendant
 Examples:
 Defacing property
 Causing physical harm
 Breaking contract

12.  Statutory Law:
 Laws made by federal or state legislatures
 Administrative Law:
 Laws established by bureaucracy

14.  Article 3, Section 1:
 “The judicial power of the
United States, shall be
vested in one Supreme
Court, and in such inferior
courts as Congress may
from time to time ordain
and establish.”

15.  Judges keep jobs for “good behavior”
 Establishes jurisdiction of Supreme Court

16.  How many members will be on the
Supreme Court?
 Will there be lower courts?
 What actual powers will the judiciary have?

18. STATE
SUPREME
COURT
TRIAL
COURT
APPELLATE
COURT

19.  Trial Court
 Cases heard for first time (original jurisdiction)
 Court of Appeals
 Hear appeals from trial courts
 State Supreme Court
 All decisions are final unless federal question

20. .
U.S.
SUPREME
COURT
APPELLATE
COURTS
DISTRICT
COURTS

21. DISTRICT COURTS
 94 trial courts in federal system
 Original jurisdiction over
Constitutional questions
APPELLATE COURTS
 12 Circuit Courts
 Appellate jurisdiction;
Cases from lower courts

29.  Politics vs. Court Integrity
 What would you have decided if you had been
a justice on the Marshall Court?

30.  Establishment of Judicial Review
 Power of courts to determine whether a law or
parts of laws are constitutional
 Check on President and Congress

33. Since the 1930s, the
Supreme Court has
been active on a
number of
important political
and social issues.

35. Gerald Ford John Paul Stevens

36.  Nominee’s Ideological and Policy Preferences
 Judicial Competence
 Demographic Factors
 Political Environment

37.  Views hot-button issues could tip the Court
(and future decisions) in president’s favor

38.  Nominating someone seen as generally
qualified can quicken confirmation process
George W. Bush nominating
White House Counsel Harriet
Miers for a vacancy on the
Supreme Court.
Miers eventually withdrew
her nomination.

39. Thurgood
Marshall
Sandra Day
O’Connor
Sonia
Sotomayor

40.  What factors should a president consider?
 Approval Rating
 Senate Control
 Legislative Goals

42. ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
 Straight to Supreme Court
 Many types of cases
APPELLATE JURISDICTION
 Heard via appeal from
lower court
 Majority of cases
 Writ of certiorari :
Court agrees to review a
case on appeal
 Stare Decisis
(“let the decision stand”)

43.  Four justices must agree hear a given case
(“Rule of Four”)
 Who else has influence over the Court?
 Solicitor General
 Amicus curiae briefs

46.  Legal Model
 Focus on legal principles
 Judicial Restraint vs. Judicial Activism
 Attitudinal Model
 Focus on policy preferences
 How we do know preferences? (Party of President)
 Strategic Model
 Focus on strategic considerations
 Justices’ decision-making; political environment

48.  Majority Opinion
 Role of Chief Justice in opinion assignment
 Plurality Opinion
 Absence of majority (4-3-2 decision)
 Agree on ruling, but NOT on exact reasoning
 Concurring Opinion
 Agree with ruling; Disagree with reasoning
 Dissenting Opinion
 Disagree with ruling; Disagree with reasoning