Government

Joshua Brink

Professor Bradley

Midterm

9 September 2012

1. Describe the United Sates Judicial system. How is it made up? What levels does it have? What powers do each level have? How does the Supreme Court fit in? What powers does the Supreme Court have? What about the appeals system?

Article III of the Constitution establishes the judicial power of the United States. These are the Supreme Court and, “such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” Congress has used this authority to establish an intricate network of inferior federal courts since 1789. These established courts are called Article III or Constitutional Courts. Federal district courts and the US courts of appeal are Article III Courts of general jurisdiction, which means that their jurisdiction extends to all controversies arising under the Constitution that may be brought before them within the proper legal bounds of rights and remedies. Congress has also created constitution courts of special or limited jurisdiction, which have jurisdiction only over a particular class of cases arising under the constitution. Judges on constitutional courts, whether general or special, are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate for a period of good behavior. In effect, they are appointed for life.

Constitutional courts administering specific fields under the judicial power of Article III include the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the United States Court of International Trade. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was created in 1982, replacing the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals established in 1909; and the appellate division of the Court of Claims established in 1855. This court hears appeals from the US Claims Court, the Court of International Trade, the Patent and Trademark Office, the Court of Veterans Appeals, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and in some contract and revenue cases from...