The federal judicial body consists of institutions responsible for interpreting the meaning of laws, application of statutes to individual and organizational cases, and deciding whether the laws are violating the constitution. The federal judiciary consists of the supreme courts alongside other federal courts. According to McCloskey & Levinson (2016), the supreme court of the United States acts as the appellate court. Other federal courts include the courts of appeal that hear appeals and district courts that are capable of holding trials.
The state’s highest court is the Supreme Court, and it has nine members that include the chief justice among other eight associate justices. The federal judges’ lack fixed terms of holding their offices, and thus they can serve for the rest of their lives, voluntarily retire, or be removed by the Congress through impeachment and conviction (McCloskey & Levinson, 2016).
The federal courts of appeal are the intermediate level courts, and they are responsible for reviewing cases that are appealed from lower courts. The courts of appeal review the lower courts records to decide since no new evidence is accepted in any appealed case as Sen (3013) asserts. The judicial system has a total of thirteen courts of appeal whereby eleven have power over any state, from 3-9 nations, another one has command over D.C, and the last court of appeal has jurisdiction involving international trade and patents.
The lowest level in the federal system is the district courts. The U.S judicial system adds up to ninety-four districts in the fifty territories and states. Being the lowest level in the federal judicial system, the district courts handle new cases from two sides that present their cases before a jury of verdict unlike in the other jurisdictions (Sen, 3013). Only one judge presides over the cases presented in this judicial court, and most cases probably end at these courts.
Most complex cases are forwarded to appeal courts which can also overturn it to the district courts. American judicial system is useful for justice and negotiations (Sen, 3013).
- McCloskey, R. G., & Levinson, S. (2016). The American supreme court. University of Chicago Press.
- Sen, M. (2013). Courting Deliberation: An Essay on Deliberative Democracy in the American Judicial System. Notre Dame JL Ethics & Pub. Pol’y, 27, 303.
