Federal Court System

Flashcards about the differences between district, circuit, and supreme courts.

Difference between trial and circuit courts

Trial courts resolve issues of both fact and law; circuit courts focus on questions of law.

Appeals Process

The party that loses in the district court can appeal to the circuit court.

Standard of Review

The level of deference given by the circuit court to the district court on findings of fact.

Purpose of Circuit Courts

The job of the circuit courts is to make sure that the district court got the answers to legal questions right.

Circuit Court Panel

A panel of three judges sitting together at once typically hears a case argued before a circuit court.

En banc

All the judges on the circuit consider the case together, except in the ninth circuit; main purpose is to maintain the uniformity of the circuit court's decisions.

Supreme Court

The federal court at the top of the judicial ladder is the United States Supreme Court.

Petition for Certiorari

Justices determine if the court will hear a case by filing a petition for certiorari that explains why the case is important enough for the Supreme Court to consider.

The three levels of the federal judiciary

District courts, the circuit courts, and the US Supreme Court.

Article Three Judges

Article Three of the Constitution establishes the federal judiciary and also gives federal judges life tenure.

How Article Three judges are appointed

Nominated by the president and confirmed by the United States Senate.

Supreme Court Authority

When the Supreme Court decides a legal issue, its holding is binding for all lower courts in the federal judiciary.

Distinguishing Precedent

Trying to argue that a case issued by a court higher up in the hierarchy does not actually present the same issue presented in a later case, meaning that the prior decision is not really binding.

Precedent

Circuit courts do not have to follow the precedents from other circuit courts; district courts are only required to follow precedent from their own regional circuit court.