Introduction
The judicial system in the United States of America is one of the arms of the federal government. The judicial system plays a major role in settling economic, social, and political problems as well as participating in the formulation of the laws in the United States of America. The judicial system of the United States of America is one of the most sophisticated judicial systems in the world. The judicial system is carefully organized in a hierarchical order in order to effectively achieve its goals of serving the world’s biggest country.
In trying to understand how the judicial system works several things need to be put into consideration. This paper focuses mainly on the different types of courts and their roles, how judges are appointed, and the basics of the jury.
Historical Background
One of the most distinctive features of the United States judicial system is its dual system. The judicial system is divided into federal courts and state courts. Each state in the United States of America has its own separate court system. Before the constitution was adopted, the United States was governed by the articles of the confederation. Under the articles, all the powers are vested in the congress without any separation of the powers (America.gov, 2008: Para 2). This was a major setback to the system of government. The judicially was however introduced when the constitution was formulated in 1789. However, in order not to influence the independence of each state, the state court system was set up (America.gov 2008: Para 6).
The system of justice administration in the United States of America follows a situation where the litigants present the cases to a person or group of people who are neutral concerning the case and the system was inherited from the English common law. In this system, the judges or the jury listen to each litigant’s arguments in order to determine the truth. The litigants or their lawyers make written or oral arguments or present evidence and testimonies to the court in order to establish the facts about a case (Silverman 2009: Para 3).
Despite being required to hire and pay lawyers and attorneys, litigants who experience financial constraints are given a reprieve. When a person is charged with a criminal offense, the government-appointed attorney is provided to represent the accused if they are unable to hire a private attorney. Silverman (2008: Para 4) indicates that rules regarding how a court obtains evidence, testimony, and presentation do exist. Also, the trial procedures and courtroom etiquette both for justice administrators and the general public are provided. The aim of formulating such rules is to assist in the fair administration of justice to each side in a case. These rules are presented to the judicial committee for approval before being forwarded to congress for approval. When Congress approves the rules, they are made into law.
Each state has got its own judicial system and some of the rules and laws governing the state judicial systems are adopted from the federal laws. Since state statutes are applied to a higher level than the federal statutes, most of the criminal and civil cases in the United States of America are determined in the state courts.
Whenever rulings are made, they are filed as precedents of the subsequent cases of similar nature – they form part of the law. The term precedent is used to refer to previous decisions whose principle is applied in future decision making if similar case(s) are encountered, a policy usually known as (stare decisis) (Silverman 2009: Para 6).
The Federal Judicial System
The federal judicial system was introduced in 1789. Over time many changes have been affected by congress to alter the initial setup of the federal judicial system to its current status. The federal judicial system is composed of courts that are organized into two categories: constitutional courts and legislative courts. Constitutional courts comprise of the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and Federal District Courts while the legislative courts on the other hand include the U.S Court of Military Appeals, United States Tax Court, Bankruptcy Courts, and the Court of Veterans Appeals (America.gov 2008)
At the federal level in the United States, the U.S. Attorney General is the head of the federal judicial system and he/she is appointed by the president. The work of the attorney general is to prosecute defendants who have committed federal crimes. In addition, the attorney general handles the cases involving civil crimes where he defends the United States government. At the state level, the attorney general of the states similarly heads the judicial system. The office of the attorney general is to prosecute state criminals aided by state attorneys in running the businesses of his department throughout the state.
In the federal judiciary system, the 5th amendment of the constitution of the United States of America established that a defendant should remain innocent until proved guilty. Also, the amendment provided for the prevention of a defendant if found innocent not to be prosecuted again over the same crime being considered (Gorin, n.d: p 2).
In the federal system, each federal court has a chief judge who holds some administrative duties as well as routine duties. Usually, the criteria of appointing the chief judge require considering the judge who has served in a certain federal court for the longest time. Usually, chief justice in district courts and the court of appeals must be under the age of 65 years (Silverman 2009: p 2).
In each federal court, a clerk of the court is the chief administrative officer who is charged with the duties of maintaining the records, financial management, provision of support services, administer the jury system among other duties.
The U.S. Supreme Court
The federal Supreme Court comprises the chief justice and five other associate judges. One of the most important roles of the Supreme Court is its role in policymaking. The Supreme Court interprets the law and formulates the public policy issues. However, its role in policymaking depends on the other arms of the government – the legislative and the executive. The Supreme Court is not self-starting; it waits for problems to arise.
The other role of the Supreme Court is that the supreme court of the United States of America is the final arbiter. In this role, the Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States of America such that it bears the final word concerning the interpretation of the constitution. They have the capability to handle both the new cases and the appeal cases emanating from the lower courts. The appellate jurisdiction is however the major jurisdiction of the Supreme Court as most of the time is occupied in reviewing the cases that were originally dealt with by the lower courts.
The working of the Supreme Court lasts from the first Monday of October and ends around June or July of the following year. This depends on the time that the business of the term is completed. The court term is divided into sittings that are approximately two weeks in length. It is estimated that the Supreme Court handles approximately 80 to 90 cases per term.
When dealing with the review of cases, the Supreme Court applies the device known as “certiorari” which gives the Supreme Court the power to decide which cases should be reviewed. The court has the mandate to grant or decline a hearing of a case following a request filed by parties whose case had been decided in lower courts. If granted, a writ of certiorari is issued which directs the lower court to send the records of the case to the Supreme Court. If the request is denied, the decision by the lower court remains.
During decision making, the court issues majority opinions where they write separate concurring opinions in which they explain the reasons for agreeing with the majority in deciding the cases. The written document of the decisions made by the justices is known as the opinion which may also incorporate decisions regarding the constitutionality of a law and convictions about how the law should be applied (Silverman 2008: p 2).
The U.S Court of Appeals
This is the second-highest court in the federal judicial system. The court of Appeals forms one of the most important parts of the judicial system in that it acts as the last resort for most of the cases of appeal. The court of Appeals falls under the circuit courts where each is composed of two justices of the Supreme Court and a district judge. The Circuit Court Act of 1802 established that the court of Appeals is presided over by a district judge. Like the Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeals have the original and appellate jurisdictions (America.gov, 2008).
In its appellate jurisdiction, most of the cases originate from the federal district courts. When appellants are displeased with the decisions of the district courts they file appeals in the court of appeal of the circuit in which the federal district court is located. There is no specification of cases that can be heard in these courts and therefore both important and routine cases are being handled. When the court of appeals deals with matters of public interest, the decisions they make are likely to establish policy not only for the specific litigant but also to the society as a whole. Such cases include cases concerning civil liberties, religion, and education. The fact that the court of appeals’ word is final for most of the appealed cases, the court of appeals serves as a policymaker. In addition, most of the work of the courts of appeal involves reviewing cases dealt with by the federal district courts. This entails the correction of errors made when district courts decide on cases. Also reviewing includes sorting out and developing cases that are worthy of the Supreme Court.
Since the court of appeal cannot decide the cases to deal with, they apply a specific procedure of dealing with appeal cases. First, cases are passed through the screening stage where a decision is made on where the decision is made on the extent of review that should be afforded. In this process, similar cases may be consolidated together and be subjected to the same decision. When the decision of subjecting the cases to the full review is given, a three-judge panel is assigned the task of dealing with the cases. In this process, different cases can be handled simultaneously by various groups of three-judge panels and in the event of a conflict of decisions by the different panels, the federal statutes have a provision for “en banc”. This is a procedure where all the circuit’s judges sit on a panel and find a unanimous decision about the case. This provision is also applied whenever a case of extraordinary importance is to be decided.
When a case passes the screening stage, it is passed to the next stage of oral argument where the attorneys have the opportunity to be heard as well as respond to queries forwarded to them. After this process, the judges embark on the task of making the decision. This process may take a short to a long time depending on the agreement of the judges in reaching a decision.
The court of appeal will only hear the cases brought before it only when the appellant proves beyond doubt that the former decision was erroneously arrived at by the former court and the decision made hereafter will stand, although a further appeal can be made to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court usually does not listen to the case but deals with the case through the records supplied from the courts of appeal and the trial courts, except under very special circumstances which include where multiple courts of appeals have interpreted the law differently, when a vital legal principle is being dealt with or if the issue regards how the constitution is interpreted (Silverman 2008: p 4).
Federal District Courts
These are the courts that fall at the foot of the federal court system where most of the new cases are tried and determined or forwarded to higher courts. A lot of cases end at the trial courts although some cases can pass to the court of appeals or even to the high court. The decision to make the district courts was made by congress in 1789. By this time, each of the 11 states was made into a district with Massachusetts and Virginia also forming two more districts thus giving a total of 13 districts. The original arrangement was to have each court presided over by a single judge. However, currently, all districts have more than one judge.
As mentioned earlier, the federal district courts are referred to as the trial courts due to the fact that they provide an opportunity for the attorneys to cross-examine the witnesses brought forward by the complainants of the case being heard. The initial records of the case are established at this stage where if the case is subjected to appeals in the court of appeals, the records are passed from the federal district courts. Appeals are made to correct errors rather than collecting more facts or restructuring them.
The jury is tasked with the responsibility of determining information and is categorized into two: grand and petit. The grand jury is mandated with the responsibility of authenticating validity and adequacy of evidence brought against an accused person while on the other hand; the petit jury determines the innocence or guiltiness of a person in a civil and criminal suit. For criminal cases, the federal statutes require a group of 12 jurors but fewer for civil cases. According to Silverman (2008: p 7), the process of selection of juries involves summoning members of a community who are registered voters and hold a driving license. Before the person can be hired as a juror, he/she is subjected to a process of establishing whether they have the potential to act as one. This is done by filling in the questionnaire and another process called “voir dire” which is carried on in the courtrooms. In this process, judges and lawyers examine the persons to ascertain that they can serve as jurors. Jurors can be excluded from the jury by the lawyers without giving reasons.
In most cases, the federal district courts deal with matters of enforcement of rule and order in the United States of America. Most judgments in these courts are done in accordance with the rule of law as it appears in the statutes. Therefore these courts are law enhancing.
Federal Judiciary System Administration and Staffing
The US courts administration office is charged with the tasks of distribution of supplies to various federal courts in different cities. The Judicial Conference of the United States is the central administrative and policy-making organization that looks into all matters in the federal judicial system. Through this office, provision and clearing of statistical information required by the conference are undertaken and the office also serves as the advocate for the federal judiciary in dealing with congress. The funding of the judicially is received from the federal government’s budgetary allocations.
The Staff of the Federal Judicially System
The federal judiciary system in the United States of America is served by a large number of employees who undertake varying tasks. Although judges overshadow other staff members in the system, other important categories of the staff enhance the work in the system in collaboration with the judges and the administration as a whole. Such support staff includes the U.S magistrates and law clerks.
Judges are appointed by the president and approved by the senate for a lifetime. The judges can however be removed from the office through impeachment and conviction of the congress. Magistrate judges are appointed by the judges in the district courts. The magistrates are hired for an eight years term where they work under established guidelines of duties and responsibilities formulated by the judges. The introduction of the magistrates in the judicial system aimed at reducing the workload of judges in the courts. Silverman (2008: p 5) indicates that for a case to be heard by a magistrate both parties must reach an agreement for the magistrate to preside over and not the district judge.
Federal attorneys are hired by the government under the office of the attorney general. The work of the attorneys is to represent the federal government in the courts. There are 93 U.S. attorneys throughout the United States of America and an attorney is usually attached to each of the judicial districts except in Northern Mariana and Guam islands that are jointly served by one attorney (Longley, 2007: Para 1). Attorneys in the United States of America act as the chief federal law enforcement officers in the districts they serve in the United States of America. Attorneys are charged with the responsibility of prosecuting criminal cases brought by the United States of America, prosecution, and defense of civil cases in which the United States of America is involved, and collecting money owed to the federal government which cannot be collected through administrative mechanisms. The U.S attorneys are appointed by the president of the United States of America for a term of four years and the appointment is subject to approval by a majority of the U.S senate (Longley 2007: Para 8).
On the other hand, the judges and magistrates have the power to hire law clerks that are given the responsibility of support staff in the courts. The duties of a law clerk are determined by the judges or magistrates they work for. The work of the law clerks who work for federal judges is mainly to research various motions filed in civil and criminal cases. When law clerks are involved in the initial stages of litigation, they deal with the attorneys and the witnesses where they help in formulating initial opinions concerning a particular case. In the court of appeals, law clerks in addition to researching the law and facts they may also be involved in the screening process of cases to determine whether a case will be dropped or not. Law clerks also are involved in writing the orders that accompany the decision in the courts of appeal and also assist judges in the federal district courts in preparation for oral arguments.
Other Special Federal Courts
The congress of the United States of America has established some special legislative courts that are presided over by judges just like in other courts. One of the legislative courts is the United States court of international trade which the courts handle cases relating to international trade and customs and whose offices of this court are located in New York City. However, the court has the capacity of holding hearings outside America. When appeals are made for the decisions of these courts, they are forwarded to the U.S courts of appeal and then to the Supreme Court if necessary. The chief justice has the power to appoint judges to preside over healings in these courts (Silverman 2009: p 6).
The other legislative court in the United States Court of Federal Claims decides on cases regarding money damages against the government. Also, the court deals with cases of conflicts over federal contracts, illegal seizure of private property by the government among other cases. The nature of cases that the court handles has led to the court to be referred to as the People’s Court (Silverman 2009; p 6).
State Judicial System
The fact that the states in the United States of America have an independent government system requires that each state establishes its own judicial system despite the existence of the federal judicial system responsible for all the states. Each state has the freedom to adopt any form of organization in its judicial system. The importance of the state courts is anchored in the fact that the statutory law is more extensive at the state level than at the federal level.
Despite the fact that the federal courts are the most powerful as far as formulation of federal policies is concerned, the state courts undertake much of the work in keeping the judicial system of the United States of America running. Although the judicial systems are different in different states, sufficient similarities appear that provide a universal image of the organization of a state judicial system. In the majority of the states, the judicial system is made up of a set of two trial courts of limited jurisdiction, intermediate appellate courts, and the highest court which referred to various terms in different states (Anonymous n.d: Para 9).
Trial Courts
These are courts in the state judicial system that is responsible to handle initial small cases and are usually presided over by a single judge. Unlike in the federal system, in these courts, a judge carries out the duties without the involvement of a jury. They are actually of two types i.e. those with limited jurisdiction and those with general jurisdiction.
Trial courts with limited jurisdiction
These courts usually handle cases that involve the administration of justice in day-to-day matters in society. Examples of these courts include the Probation Courts, Family Courts, Traffic Courts, Juvenile Courts, Municipal Courts and Small Claims Court.
Probation courts handle such cases as the administration of the property of a person when a person dies. This involves the enforcement of justice when provisions for will are carried out accordingly. Also, the courts ensure that the properties are distributed properly according to the law of the state if a person died without declaring a will for the distribution of property.
Family Courts on the other hand deal with cases concerning children’s adoption, divorce, custody, child support, etc.
Juvenile Courts determine cases regarding delinquent children under a certain age mostly below eighteen years.
Municipal Courts handle cases involving a violation of city rules and regulations.
Small claim courts deal with cases between private persons involving a small amount of money.
Trial courts of general jurisdiction
In the majority of the states in the United States of America, the trial courts of general jurisdiction are the main trial courts in the state judicial systems. These courts handle cases that are outside the jurisdiction of the trial courts with limited jurisdiction as discussed above. In these courts, cases of civil as well as criminal offenses are dealt with. Unlike in the trial courts with limited jurisdiction, in these courts, a judge sitting with a jury usually is involved in settling the problems.
Just like in the federal system, the records established in the trial courts of general jurisdiction are used in higher-level courts in case appeals are made. Different states refer to these courts differently, for example, circuit courts, superior courts, and courts of common pleas. In New York, these courts are referred to as the supreme courts (Anonymous n.d Para 13).
Intermediate Appeal Late Courts
These categories of courts serve as the courts of appeal in many states. However, not all states have this category of courts separating the trial courts and the high courts. In these courts, the judges only correct the procedural errors that are made in the junior courts. As mentioned earlier, the facts of the case are applied from the records established by the juries in the trial courts. Cases are usually determined by panels of judges, mainly comprising of two or three judges.
Highest State Courts
Each state has got its highest court which is referred to using different names from state to state. In many states, the highest courts are referred to as supreme courts. However, in some states like Maryland, it is referred to as the court of appeal. The highest courts assume all the roles played by the intermediate courts but they have the final word concerning the interpretation of the law and decision making. Other than jurisdiction on appellate cases, the state supreme courts also have original jurisdictions where cases are decided for the first time in these courts.
Conclusion
The United States judiciary system is one the most comprehensive in the world. With the US being made up of different states, each state is autonomous in the judicial process although its judicial system has to be in conformity with the requirements of the overall federal judicial system. Depending on the magnitude of the case being handled within a state, different courts in the systems including trial courts appeals courts, and high state courts may come into action. In addition, where cases are beyond state jurisdiction, the federal courts which include federal district courts, courts of appeal, and supreme courts may handle them. The connection between the federal and state judicial systems adds impetus to the justice system of America.
References
America.gov. (2008). History and Organization of the Federal Judicial System. Web.
Anonymous. Understanding federal and state courts, U.S. courts. Web.
Gorin, S. Overview of the US Judicial System. Web.
Longley, R. (2007). About the United States Attorneys. Web.
Silverman, J. (2009). How the Judicial System Works: How stuffs work. Web.