AP

GoPo Review, 15.1

Judiciary

This session covers
• Evolution of the Court
• Structure of the Judiciary


Evolution of the Court
• Article III of Constitution created the Supreme Court of the United States. It further
gave to Congress the power to pass laws to create inferior federal courts.
o Further, the Constitution established the Supreme Court’s __________________
________________________ but left the Court’s __________________
________________________ to Congress.
• To give the Judiciary independence, the Constitution calls for federal judges to be
appointed for “good behavior”.
• Congress created the federal judicial system with the Judiciary Act of 1789.
• It took until the appointment of the fourth Chief Justice, John Marshall, for the Court to
flex its muscle, making the Judicial Branch a significant part of the government.
• The decision in __________________ ____ __________________, 1803 would become
the defining case of the U.S. Supreme Court
o Recall the saga of the “Midnight Judges” between Adams, President Jefferson,
and Chief Justice Marshall in 1800.
o Thomas Jefferson was elected president over the incumbent, John Adams.
o Adams signed 59 Senate- confirmed judicial appointments up until midnight on
his last day in office, but with the clock ticking, 17 of the commissions were left
undelivered on the Secretary of State’s desk.
o Jefferson refused to acknowledge the undelivered commissions, leading James
Marbury, an appointee, to go directly to the Supreme Court and ask for a ______
_____ __________________.
o Marshall held that it was wrong for Jefferson not to honor the appointment.
However, he ruled that the part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that said the
Supreme Court could issue such writs as part of its original jurisdiction was
unconstitutional.
o Marshall clearly put forth that the Court had the power of __________________
__________________, saying, “It is emphatically the province and duty of the
judicial department to say what the law is.” Further, “a law repugnant to the
Constitution is void.”
o Today, we accept that the Court’s power of judicial review extends to acts of
Congress and the Executive, lower court decisions, and state legislation.

Section 15: Judiciary

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• Like federalism, the Judiciary has evolved over time.
o In the earliest years the Court’s focus was on establishing it’s legitimacy and
often ruled in favor of the national government.
o As the nation expanded and industrialized, the economy and property took up
much of the Court’s time into the early years of the New Deal.
o After 1936, political liberty gained the Court’s attention with the appointment of
Earl Warren as Chief Justice until the mid-1970s.
o The Court revived the concept of state sovereignty – that states can resist some
(but not all) forms of federal action -- beginning in 1992.



Supreme Court Era Aligns to Cases

National Supremacy & • Aligns closely to Era of National

Slavery Supremacy cases
1789 - Civil War

Government & the Economy • Aligns closely to Dual Federalism,

1870 - early years of Civil Liberties, and Civil Rights cases
New Deal

Political Liberty
• Aligns closely to Cooperative
Federalism, Civil Liberties, and Civil
New Deal - 1960s Rights cases

Revival of State Sovereignty

• Aligns closely to New & Competitive
Federalism, Civil Liberties, and Civil
1970s - 1990s Rights cases

Section 15: Judiciary

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Structure of the Judiciary
• The United States has a ___________ ___________ ______________ – it is made up of
separate court systems -- a federal court system and state court system in each of the
fifty states.


State Supreme
U.S. Supreme Court (1) Courts




Original U.S. Courts State
Jurisdiction of Appeal Appellate
Cases (13) Courts



U.S.
State Trial
District
Courts
Courts (94)

Section 15: Judiciary

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