Legal System Basics: What different courts do

This is part of my Spotlight on Civics Series.

DISCLAIMER: Before digging in, a few warnings: if you’re looking for a quick review for AP government or intro to law/politics classes or you’re just a general passerby who wants to know a little more about what’s going on in the news, this is a good spot for you. If you’re looking for vocational, “pass the bar” level knowledge, you’re going to want to go ask a lawyer.

This post is about some basic differences in courts and their functions. You’ll walk away with a quick-and-dirty understanding of some of the cases that unfold in the news.

Most courts come under Article III of our Constitution

Article III of the US Constitution rests all powers over “cases and controversies” with a Supreme Court and such inferior courts as Congress shall determine. I recommend the National Constitution Center’s interactive Constitution for more on this.

One interesting point to note is that while there was a Legislative Branch and a (sort of) Executive Branch under the Articles of Confederation, there really wasn’t a national court system. Check out my post on the differences between the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution.

The other branches of government got a first draft, the Framers were flying by the seat of their pants in some ways with the Judicial Branch. Additionally, it’s the least detailed branch. Article I (Congress) is pages, Article III is paragraphs.

There are a handful of courts that aren’t under Article III, they are under Article I.  These tend to be things that Congress has almost exclusive jurisdiction over. The tax court, the Veterans Affairs Court, and the Military Court (because remember, it is Congress that has most of the say on the US Code of Military Justice).

There are different state and federal courts

State and federal courts tend to be separate, but you can “jump the track” from a state to the federal courts if you can present a federal question (something the federal government has power over).

Jurisdiction (very simply put, where the law (“juris”) speaks (“diction”)) is a matter of who gets to say what the law is in that area. States tend to have jurisdiction in things that the federal government can’t weigh in on: local matters like zoning, “police powers” (see this blog post), and schools to name a few.

But if something happens within state issues that is something the federal government can weigh in on, then you can get into federal court. So, say you’re zoning something which is a state issue, but there’s a civil rights issue (like redlining) then it becomes a federal issue.

There are different reasons people might prefer different courts. If you’re a cause-lawyer looking to make a national change, you’d want the federal level. If you think the courts in your state are more sympathetic, you might try to stay in state court. But some issues will automatically chuck you into federal court (like committing a federal crime).

Each state has three levels of courts. You start at the trial court where the case plays out (think lawyers, juries, introduction of evidence). Then you can go to the appeals court where the judge considers other procedural factors (e.g., was the jury instructed properly?). Finally, you go to the Supreme/Superior court or the court of last resort that looks at bigger level.

This same three part structure plays out at the federal level as well (and in our branches of government, and fairytales, and baseball...we really like the number three). Also, remember that while judges in some states are elected in partisan and non-partisan elections, all federal judges are appointed and that may change the way they decide cases.

In the federal system the last barrier is the Court “grants cert.”

A writ of certiorari is the Court agreeing to take your case. They have a “discretionary docket” which means that most of the time, they choose the cases they take.

District courts focus on the issue at hand (legal facts)

At the federal level, district courts are trial courts. There are 94 of these courts and they are spread (you guessed it) in districts across the country. There is at least one in every state, but more populous states have more (which brings up some really interesting questions about rurality and access to justice, leave a comment if you want to brainstorm about that, because I do!).

Image Description: US District Courts. Source: https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/court-role-and-structure

District courts are basically what you see on Law and Order. There’s usually one judge, two lawyers, and a jury. Witnesses can get called, evidence gets admitted, and the jury decides whether you’re guilty/not guilty (criminal trial) or liable/not liable (civil trial).

If you lose, you can try to appeal.

Appeals courts focus on the case (process, procedure, rules)

There are 13 appeals courts in the US. They’re broken up into 12 circuits (which is why you’ll sometimes hear them called “The Circuit”). Instead of having a single judge and a jury, you’ll almost always have a three-judge panel. This is because they’re not looking at legal facts in the same way a jury would be. Here you want people who are all professionals in procedure and law to look at whether the law was applied properly and whether the procedure was followed.

Here you may see questions such as whether the jury was instructed properly or was bias in some illegal way (there are legal ways), whether the evidence was admitted properly, whether they judge was biased, etc.

A few things to know about the appeals court. One thing to know about appeals courts is that the bar to get in can be really high. There are laws that make it even more difficult like Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). John Oliver does a really nice job summing up some of the access to justice issues with AEDPA (but so did then-Senator Biden before he voted on it anyway).

There are a lot of questions about when you have the right to appeal and what your right to publicly funded legal counsel is in those cases. That’s way out of my generalist wheelhouse, so I’ll direct you to a lawyer.

Supreme Court judges the law

If you keep going from the appeals court, you’ll get to the Supreme Court. You can get there in other ways, but most of the time the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) has appellate jurisdiction (they hear it after it’s gone through the process) rather than original jurisdiction (you start in the Court).

The Court has 9 judges, though that’s set by an Act of Congress rather than the Constitution. Originally the Court had six judges. Over time, it’s had as few as 5 and as many as 10.

Note that it’s called the Supreme Court of the United States because when a case is decided at the Supreme Court, you can’t appeal it to higher courts even in the states because no court is higher.

None of this is as cut-and-dry in real life as it is on paper

At the end of the day, what is on paper is only how the system “should” work, it’s not always how it does work. But now you know what different courts do, and that should help you understand a little more about why our legal system is so messy!