Text B. UNITED STATES COURTS OF APPEALS

1. Created in 1891 to relieve the U.S. Supreme Court of hearing the growing number of appeals, the U.S. courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the federal system. Eleven of the circuits are identified by number and are organized regionally. The twelfth circuit has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia.

2. The courts of appeals are staffed by 156 judges, who are nominated by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and (like other Article III judges) enjoy lifetime tenure. As with the district courts, the number of circuit court judges varies, depending somewhat on the population and volume of cases. The number of judges authorized for each circuit ranges from six (the First Circuit) to twenty-eight (the Ninth Circuit). The chief judge (the most senior judge in terms of service, under seventy years of age) of each circuit has supervisory responsibilities for the circuit.

3. The courts of appeals have jurisdiction to review the final decisions of the district court, as well as the power to act on certain legal issues that arise while a lawsuit is going on (called interlocutory appeals). In addition, the circuit courts hear appeals from a host of quasi-judicial tribunals such as the National Labor Relations Board.

4. In a typical year, approximately 40,000 cases are filed in the courts of appeals. As is true in the district courts, the volume of cases in the circuit courts has grown steadily since the early 1960s, tripling each decade. This growth has not been uniform, however. Criminal appeals shot up dramatically from 1963 to 1973 but have since leveled off. Thus, the largest recent increase has been in civil appeals.

5. The circuit courts normally utilize three-judge panels in deciding cases, which produces some differences in legal interpretation from panel to panel. In controversial cases, though, all the judges may sit together to decide the case. Such en banc hearings are rare, however; in a typical year, there are no more than a hundred in the entire nation. A decision by the circuit court exhausts the litigant’s right to one appeal. A dissatisfied party may request the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, but such requests are rarely granted.

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Text A. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURTS	\|	Text A. RUNING A BUSINESS

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