POLS Exam 3 - Chapter 13 & 15

dual court system

represents courts at both the national and state levels.

Both levels have three basic tiers consisting of trial courts, appellate courts, and courts of last resort.

dual court system pros:

Each person has more than just one court system ready to protect his or her rights.

dual court system con:

The existence of the dual court system means that there are different courts in which a person could face charges for a crime.

State Courts

Hear most day-to-day cases, covering 90 percent of all cases

Hear both civil and criminal matters

Help the states retain their own sovereignty in judicial matters over their state laws, distinct from the national government.

Federal Courts

Hear cases that involve a “federal question,”.

Hear both civil and criminal matters.

Hear cases that involve “interstate” matters, “diversity of citizenship” involving parties of two different states, or between a U.S. citizen and a citizen of another nation.

District Court

There are ninety-four in the U.S.

These are trial courts of the national system, in which federal cases are tried.

Some cases are heard by a jury and some are not.

Court of Appeals

There are thirteen of them.

Each court is overseen by a rotating panel of three judges who review the rulings of the trial courts within their area.

How are judges chosen to begin with?

The president volunteers them to judgeship.

Solicitor General

the lawyer who represents the federal government before the Supreme Court.

Structure of the Supreme Court:

has 9 justices,

There is one chief justice, the highest-ranking judge on the Court.

There are 8 associate judges.

All nine serve lifetime terms.

Supreme Court

accepts fewer than two percent of as many as ten thousand cases it is asked to review every year.

Bureaucracy

an administrative group of non-elected officials charged with carrying out functions connected to a series of policies and programs.

Citizen Bureaucratic Oversight

the Freedom of Information Act of 1996 and the Government in the Sunshine Act of 1976.

Privatization

the controversial solution to perceived and real inefficiencies in the bureaucracy.

Divestiture (full privatization)

occurs when government services are transferred, usually through sale, from government bureaucratic control into an entirely market-based private environment.

Government contracts

The issuing of these to private companies in order for them to provide necessary services is one of the best known forms of privatization.

Third-party financing

a complex form of privatization where the federal government signs an agreement with a private entity so the two can form a special-purpose vehicle to take ownership of the object being financed.