America’s Courts and the Criminal

Justice System, 13th Edition

Chapter 2
Federal Courts

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 Learning Objectives (1 of 3)

1. Define the four primary types of jurisdiction:

geographical, subject matter, personal, and
hierarchical.
2. Compare and contrast the tasks of trial and appellate
courts.
3. Explain the historical evolution of the federal courts
into their present structure and operations.

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 Learning Objectives (2 of 3)

4. Analyze the different responsibilities and workloads of

U.S. magistrate judges, district judges, circuit judges,
and Supreme Court justices.
5. Analyze the impact the federal courts have on the
administration of criminal justice at the state and local
levels through their federal question jurisdiction.
6. Differentiate the jurisdiction and functions of Article III
courts from Article I courts and other specialized
federal courts.

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 Learning Objectives (3 of 3)

7. Distinguish the various agencies and their hierarchical

responsibilities for the administration of the federal
court system.
8. Evaluate the major problems facing the federal courts
and the strengths and weaknesses of the major
solutions that have been proposed to address these
problems.

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 U.S. v. Lopez

• Second Amendment – gun control

– Lopez carried a gun to school to give to another student
to use in a “gang war”
• Anonymous tip led to Lopez
– Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1990 violation
• Guilty: Sentenced to 6 months in prison
– Supreme Court stepped in to reverse case
• Federal court vs. state court
– What should be a federal crime?

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 Basic Principles of Court Organization
(1 of 2)
• Dual Court System
– One national court plus separate courts in each of the 50
states and DC = 51 court systems
– Some concurrent jurisdiction courts

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 Basic Principles of Court Organization
(2 of 2)
• Jurisdiction
– Geographical jurisdiction and venue
– Subject matter jurisdiction
– Personal jurisdiction
– Hierarchical jurisdiction
– Original
– Appellate

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 Thinking Point: Treyvon Martin

• Consider the Treyvon Martin case from Florida.

• With regards to jurisdiction, where do you believe the
trial should have been held, and why?
• Do you believe there should have been a change of
venue? If so, where would you have moved it to have a
fair and impartial jury?

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 Basic Principles of Court Organization

• Differentiating between Trial and Appellate Courts

– Trial
 Original jurisdiction
– Appellate
 Correct interpretation of the law

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 Courts, Controversy, and
the Administration of Justice
• Should the Double Jeopardy Clause Prohibit Parallel
State and Federal Prosecutions?
– What do you think?
– Are federal prosecutions after failed state prosecutions a
good way to remedy miscarriages of justice, or are the
rights of defendants unnecessarily placed in jeopardy?

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 History of the Federal Courts

• History and Evolution

– The Constitutional Convention
– The Judiciary Act of 1789
 Marbury v. Madison (1803)
o Constitution granted courts the power to judicially review
– 1789–1891
– Court Appeals Act of 1891
– Federal courts today
 See “Key Developments in the Federal Judiciary”

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 Responsibilities of Magistrate Judges

• Created in 1968
• Alleviates increased workload of U.S. district courts
• Preliminary proceedings in felony cases
• Preside over or accept pleas in misdemeanor cases
• Caseload of U.S. magistrate judges

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 Responsibilities of
U.S. District Court Judges
• 94 total, 89 in the 50 states
• Bankruptcy judges
• Caseload of U.S. district courts
• Diversity of citizenship cases

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 Case Filings in the U.S. Courts

2002 2007 2015

U.S. Supreme Court 8,255 8,241 7,033
U.S. Circuit Courts of
57,555 58,410 52,698
Appeals
U.S. District Courts 341,841 325,920 340,238
U.S. Bankruptcy Courts 1,547,669 801,269 860,182

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 Federal Questions Jurisdiction Cases

• Suits between states

• Ambassadors and other high-ranking public figures
• Federal crimes
• Bankruptcy
• Patent, copyright, and trademark cases
• Admiralty
• Antitrust
• Securities and banking regulation
• Other cases specified by federal statute

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 Federal Questions

• Constitutionalization of criminal procedure

• Discrimination laws and civil rights cases
• Prisoner petitions
• Discrimination and civil rights caseloads in the federal
courts

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 Federal Criminal Prosecutions

Source: Federal Judicial Center. Caseload Statistics 2015, Table D-2. Washington, DC:
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

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 U.S. Court of Appeals

• Created by Congress in 1891

– 179 judges nominated by the President and confirmed
by the Senate
 Circuit judges
 One chief judge per circuit
• Caseload of U.S. Courts of Appeals

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 Geographic Boundaries of Federal
Courts

Source: Russell Wheeler and Cynthia Harrison. Creating the Federal Judicial System. 2nd ed.
Washington, DC: Federal Judicial Center, 1994, p. 26.

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 U.S. Supreme Court
• Supreme Court Justices
– 1 chief justice, 8 associate judges
– Appointed by the U.S. president
• Created by Article III of the U.S. Constitution
• Granting Cert: The Rule of Four
– Writ of certiorari
• Caseload of U.S. Supreme Court

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 Thinking Point: Supreme Court Cases

• Consider cases that have been or are currently being

reviewed by the Supreme Court this year.
– Which cases are you are familiar with?
– Why are they under review?
– What do you see as the greater/larger societal issues at
play with these cases?
– What is the impact of the court’s decisions regarding
public policy?
– How much pressure are the justices under when
weighing in on these decisions?

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 Responsibilities of Circuit Justices

• Each Supreme Court justice is assigned to serve as a

circuit judge
– Address requests for time extensions
– Rule on requests for stays in cases coming from the
circuit

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 Specialized Federal Courts

• Constitutional Courts
– Established by Congress under Article III
• Legislative Courts
– Established by Congress under Article I

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 Specialized Federal Courts with
Permanent Judges
Court Authority Level Jurisdiction
Tax Court Article I Trial Tax disputes
Monetary claims against the
Court of Federal Claims Article I Trial
federal government
Court of Veterans
Article III Trial Federal veterans' benefits
Appeal
U.S. Court of
Article III Trial Imports of foreign goods
International Trade
U.S. Court of Appeals of Uniform Code of Military
Article III Appellate
the Armed Forces Justice
Trademarks, patents, foreign
Court of Appeals for the
Article III Appellate trade, claims against the
Federal Circuit
federal government

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 Specialized Federal Courts with Judges
Borrowed from Other Federal Courts
Authorit
Court Level Jurisdiction
y
Decides whether an alien
Alien Terrorist should be removed from the
Article I Trial
Removal Court United States on the grounds of
being an alien terrorist
Foreign
Intelligence Electronic surveillance of
Article III Trial
Surveillance foreign intelligence agents
Court
Foreign
Intelligence Electronic surveillance of
Article III Appellate
Surveillance foreign intelligence agents
Court of Review

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 Specialized Federal Courts

• Military Justice
– Included 1950
– Uniformed Code of Military Justice
• Enemy Combatants
• Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
– Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
– Protect America Act of 2007
• Immigration Courts

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 Federal Judicial Administration

• Various Agencies and Their Responsibilities

– Chief Justice
– Judicial Conference of the United States
– Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
– Federal Judicial Center
– Judicial Councils
– U.S. Sentencing Commission

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 Caseloads in the Federal Courts

• Making Courts More Efficient

– Increase the number of federal judges?
– Reduce federal jurisdiction?

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 Federal Involvement in the
Criminal Justice System
• Forum for symbolic politics
– ACA
– PERF
– MADD
– ACLU
– NOW
• Federal dollars

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Case Close-Up: Floyd v. City of New York

• Case stemmed from New York City Police Department

(NYPD)’s aggressive use of their legal authority to
stop, question, and frisk (SQF) “suspicious” people
• In August 2013, a federal judge ruled that the NYPD
was engaging in unconstitutional SQF practices that
targeted predominately Black and Latino New Yorkers
• Appeal was pending when case was settled on election
of NYC mayor Bill de Blasio

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