The American Court System

The American Court System

Professor X

Introduction to Criminal Court System

(CJA/224)

Student: X

Date

Court system in the United States, judicial branches of the federal and state governments charged with the application and interpretation of the law. The U.S. court system is divided into two administratively separate systems, the federal and the state, each of which is independent of the executive and legislative branches of government. (Columbia, 2012)

"Article Three of the US Constitution stated that the judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." (Kelly)

In the beginning of time after the Congress was established in the United States the Judiciary Act was passed in 1789. This Judiciary Act made provisions for the Supreme Court, which would be made of by a Chief of Justice and five Associate Justices. The first Chief Justice appointed by George Washington was John Jay who served from September 26, 1789 to June 29, 1795. The five Associate Justices were John Rutledge, William Cushing, James Wilson, John Blair, and James Iredell. This Judiciary Act would also declare that the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court would include appellate jurisdiction in bigger civil cases and other cases which would be classified as federal.

Also, the justices of the Supreme Court would be required to serve on the U.S. circuit courts. The main objective of this is to have judges that served in higher places of the courts involved in smaller areas of the courts system, such as state courts. This way the Supreme Courts Justices could grasp more experience and knowledge of the way the state courts system operated.

Since the Supreme Court had a very narrow administrative authority over the federal courts Congress, in 1934 decided to give them more drafting rules of federal procedure. The Judiciary...