22 Module 8: The Courts
Objectives
- Identify the basic elements of the American judicial system and the major participants in it.
- Outline the structure of the federal court system and the major responsibilities of each component.
- Explain the process by which judges and justices are nominated and confirmed.
- Describe the backgrounds of judges and justices and assess the impact of background on their decisions.
- Outline the stages of the judicial process at the Supreme Court level and the development of judicial review and assess the major factors influencing decisions and their implementation.
- Assess the role of un-elected courts and the scope of judicial power in American democracy.
Read
- American Government Chapter 13
- Review the Constitution of the State of Arizona, Article VI
- Review the US Constitution
Chapter Summary
Although the scope of the Supreme Court’s decisions is broad, the actual number of cases tried in our legal system is tiny, compared to lower federal courts and state and local courts. This means that a great deal of judicial policymaking occurs in courts other than the Supreme Court. This chapter describes how the court systems are structured, how judges are selected, and the influence of the courts on the policy agenda in the United States.
The Nature of the Judicial System
The judicial system in the United States is an adversarial one in which the courts provide an arena for two parties to bring their conflict before an impartial arbiter (a judge). The system is based on the theory that justice will emerge out of the struggle between two contending points of view.
There are two basic kinds of cases, criminal and civil. In criminal law, an individual is charged with violating a specific law; criminal law provides punishment for crimes against society (or public order). Civil law does not involve a charge of criminality. Instead, it concerns a dispute between two parties and defines relationships between them. The vast majority of cases (both civil and criminal) involve state law and they are tried in state courts.
Every case is a dispute between a plaintiff and a defendant—the former bringing some charge against the latter. The task of the judge or judges is to apply the law to the case; in some cases, a jury is responsible for determining the outcome of a lawsuit. Litigants (the plaintiff and the defendant) must have standing to sue, which means they must have a serious interest in the case. Class action suits permit a small number of people to sue on behalf of all other people similarly situated. Because they recognize the courts’ ability to shape policy, interest groups often seek out litigants whose cases seem particularly strong. At other times groups do not directly argue the case for litigants, but support them instead with amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs that attempt to influence the Court’s decision, raise additional points of view, and present information not contained in the briefs of the at