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Federal Court System

Introduction: What is A Federal Court?

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  Courts decide what really happened and what should be done about it.  They decide whether a person committed a crime and what the punishment should be.  They also provide a peaceful way to decide private disputes that people cannot resolve themselves.  Sometimes, a court decision affects other people in addition to those involved in the lawsuit.  In 1965, three high school students in Des Moines, Iowa, were suspended from school for wearing black arm bands to protest the war in Vietnam.  they asked a court to declare the rule against arm bands invalid.  The Supreme Court decided in the case, Tinker v. Des Moines School District, that the rule violated the students' constitutional right of freedom of expression.  That decision affected the right of public school students all over the country to express their views in a nondisruptive manner.  The Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education had an even more widespread effect.  the case involved a dispute between the parents of Linda Brown and their local board of education in Topeka, Kansas.  The Court decided that requiring white children and black children to go to separate schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.

The Federal Court System

The Federal Court system is comprised of the Supreme Court created by Article III of the U.S. Constitution and lesser courts created by Congress under Article I Section 8 power (for example, see 28 U.S.C.A. § 43).  District courts function as trial courts.  The federal system also has trial courts of special and exclusive jurisdiction that decide specific types of controversies such as copyright or bankruptcy issues.  Appeals from the district and special courts are taken to the court of appeals for the judicial circuit in which the district court sits--the United States is divided into  eleven circuits (plus DC and the special Federal Circuit).  Appeals from the circuit courts are taken to the Supreme Court  (State court appeals can also be taken to the Supreme court if the case involves a federal question such as a Constitutional issue).

Federal Courts have limited subject matter jurisdiction.  They can only hear cases that fall both within the scope defined by the constitution in Article III Section 2 and Congressional statutes (See 28 U.S.C.A. §1251, §1253, §1331, §1332).

A court is an institution that the government sets up to settle disputes through a legal process.  See What is a Court.



Federal Cuvil Procedure-The ebook
THE IMPORTANCE OF CITATION Research, Writing & Advocacy Professor
Hensel October 2, 2001 
For an analysis OF application of -Federal Common Law
See Civil Procedure -Cases And Materials 6th ed, Sec. C. Federal Common Law, 1. The traditional of Federal Common Law, John J. Cound
American Caseboob. Series, West Publishing;
Meltzer, State Court Forfeitures of Federal Rights
99 Harv. L. Rev 1128, 1167-71 (1986)

Northern District of California
Civil Local Rules
Rule Name:
1-5. Definitions
Chapter:
Last Modified:
1. TITLE; SCOPE; DEFINITIONS
12/2000

• U.S. Code: 28 U.S.C. - Judiciary and Judicial Procedure

• Code of Federal Regulations: 28 C.F.R. - Judicial Administration (Deals Mostly with the Department of Justice)

• U.S. Supreme Court:
  • All Decisions Since 1990
  • Nixon v. U.S. (1992)
  • U.S. Supreme Court Case Summaries-FCP
  • Decisions About the Role of Federal Courts
• U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals: Recent Decisions About the Role of Federal Courts
  • U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals: 9th Cir. Case Summaries by Topic
• U.S. Trial Courts:
  • U.S. District Courts    
  • Nixon v. U.S. (1992)
  • Decisions About the Role of Federal Courts

Useful Offnet (or Subscription - $) Sources

• Good Starting Point in Print: Charles Alan Wright, Hornbook on Federal Courts, West Group (1994)
• LII Disk Materials