The US Supreme Court

The judiciary is a court system that exists throughout the country; however, final judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court. Congress divided the nation into the districts and created federal courts for each district. The judicial branch evolved with the present structure: the Supreme Court, 11 courts of appeals, 94 district courts, and 3 courts of special jurisdiction. Congress today retains power to create and abolish federal courts, as well as determining the number of judges in the federal judiciary system. However, it cannot abolish the Supreme Court, it’s the highest US court and the only one created by the Constitution. It is made up of the Chief Justice of the United States, whose office is also established by the Constitution, and 8 Associate Justices. A Supreme Court decision cannot be appealed in any other court. Congress has the power to fix the number of judges sitting in this court and, within limits, decides what cases it may hear. However, Congress cannot change the power given to the Supreme Court by the Constitution itself.

The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in only two kinds of cases, those involving foreign dignitaries and those in which a state is a party. That is, its judicial power extends to cases arising from the Constitution, US laws and treaties, admiralty and maritime cases, cases affecting ambassadors / ministers of foreign countries, consuls who live in the US, cases where the US government is a party, and controversies between states and their citizens (or foreign nations and their citizens / subjects). The 11^th Amendment removed from federal jurisdiction those cases in which one state’s citizens were plaintiffs and another state’s government was the defendant. Federal jurisdiction cases do not involve state government as plaintiff against another state’s citizen as a defendant. All other cases only reach the Supreme Court on appeal from the lower courts. The Supreme Court is in Washington, D.C. Nine justices sit and listen to important cases; one of the nine justices is called the Chief Justice. The Court usually hears about 150 of the several thousand cases which pile up annually. A significant amount of the Supreme Court’s work consists in determining whether legislation or executive acts conform to the Constitution. Court decisions need not be unanimous, a simple majority can prevail, provided at least six justices (the legal quorum) participate in the decision. In split decisions the Court usually issues a majority and a minority (or dissenting) opinion, both of which may form the basis for a future decision by the courts. The Constitution is silent on the qualifications for judges. A judge is not required to be a lawyer, although in fact federal judges and Supreme Court judges have been members of the bar.

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