Federal judiciary of the United States - Wikipedia Federal judiciary of the United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Third constitutional branch of government This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Federal judiciary of the United States" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) United States This article is part of a series on the politics and government of the United States Federal government Constitution of the United States Law Taxation Policy Legislature United States Congress House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D) Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R) Congressional districts Senate President Kamala Harris (D) President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy (D) Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) Executive President of the United States Joe Biden (D) Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris (D) Cabinet Federal agencies Executive Office Judiciary Supreme Court of the United States Chief Justice John Roberts Thomas Breyer Alito Sotomayor Kagan Gorsuch Kavanaugh Barrett Courts of appeals District courts (list) Other tribunals Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Off-year elections Primary elections presidential primary Political parties Democratic Republican Third parties Libertarian Green Federalism State government Governors Legislatures (list) State courts local government Foreign relations Department of State Secretary of State: Antony Blinken Diplomatic missions of / in the United States Nationality law Passports Visa requirements Visa policy United States and the United Nations United Nations Security Council P5 NATO G20 G7 Russia China India European Union Latin America Arab League  United States portal Other countries v t e The federal judiciary of the United States is one of the three branches of the federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government. Article III of the Constitution requires the establishment of a Supreme Court and permits the Congress to create other federal courts, and place limitations on their jurisdiction. Article III federal judges are appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate to serve until they resign, are impeached and convicted, retire, or die.[citation needed] Contents 1 Courts 1.1 Other tribunals 2 Judges 3 Administration 4 Legal procedure 5 History 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Courts[edit] Further information: Federal tribunals in the United States Civil procedure in the United States Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Doctrines of civil procedure Jurisdiction · Venue Pleadings · Motions Service of process Complaint Answer Counterclaim Crossclaim Pre-trial procedure Discovery Interrogatories Depositions Request for admissions Request for production Resolution without trial Default judgment Summary judgment Voluntary dismissal Involuntary dismissal Settlement Trial Parties Jury Burden of proof Judgment Appeal Mandamus Certiorari v t e All federal courts can be readily identified by the words "United States" (abbreviated to "U.S.") in their official names; no state court may include this designation as part of its name.[1] The federal courts are generally divided between trial courts which hear cases in the first instance, and appellate courts which review specific contested decisions made by lower courts. The United States district courts (one in each of the 94 federal judicial districts, and three territorial courts) are general federal trial courts, although in certain cases Congress has diverted original jurisdiction to specialized courts, such as the Court of International Trade, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, or to Article I or Article IV tribunals. The district courts usually have jurisdiction to hear appeals from such tribunals (unless, for example, appeals are to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.) The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate federal appellate courts. They operate under a system of mandatory review which means they must hear all appeals of right from the lower courts. In some cases, Congress has diverted appellate jurisdiction to specialized courts, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. The federal courts of appeals sit permanently in 13 appellate circuits (11 regional circuits as well as a DC Circuit and the Federal Circuit). Note that there are several other federal courts that bear the phrase "Court of Appeals" in their names, but they are not Article III courts and are not considered to sit in appellate circuits. The Supreme Court of the United States is the court of last resort. It generally hears appeals from the courts of appeals (and sometimes state courts), operating under discretionary review, which means that the Supreme Court can choose which cases to hear, by granting writs of certiorari. There is therefore generally no basic right of appeal that extends automatically all the way to the Supreme Court. In a few situations (like lawsuits between state governments or some cases between the federal government and a state) it sits as a court of original jurisdiction. Other tribunals[edit] Besides these federal courts, described as Article III courts, there are other adjudicative bodies described as Article I or Article IV courts in reference to the article of the Constitution from which the court's authority stems. There are a number of Article I courts with appellate jurisdiction over specific subject matter including the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, as well as Article I courts with appellate jurisdiction over specific geographic areas such as the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The Article I courts with original jurisdiction over specific subject matter include the bankruptcy courts (for each district court), the immigration courts, the Court of Federal Claims, and the Tax Court. Article IV courts include the High Court of American Samoa and territorial courts such as the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, District Court of Guam, and District Court of the Virgin Islands. Judges[edit] Further information: United States federal judge Federal judges, like Supreme Court justices, are appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate to serve until they resign, are impeached and convicted, retire, or die. Parts of this article (those related to vacancy numbers) need to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (January 2018) In April 2013, about 10 percent of federal seats were vacant, with 85 of 856 positions unfilled and 4 vacancies on the prestigious Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.[2] The high vacancy rate has been attributed to politics, particularly Senate filibustering of potential appointees by Senators.[2] In many cases there is no nominee for the position; however, the Senate has a tradition of senatorial courtesy in which nominees are only considered if the home senators approve.[3] In May 2013 Congressional Research Service published a paper analyzing the vacancies and appointment process.[4] Under Article I of the federal Constitution, Congress also has the power to establish other tribunals, which are usually quite specialized, within the executive branch to assist the president in the execution of his or her powers. Judges who staff them normally serve terms of fixed duration, as do magistrate judges who assist Article III judges. Judges in Article I tribunals attached to executive branch agencies are referred to as administrative law judges (ALJs) and are generally considered to be part of the executive branch even though they exercise quasi-judicial powers. With limited exceptions, they cannot render final judgments in cases involving life, liberty, and private property rights, but may make preliminary rulings subject to review by an Article III judge. Administration[edit] The Judicial Conference of the United States is the policymaking body of the U.S. federal courts. The conference is responsible for creating and revising federal procedural rules pursuant to the Rules Enabling Act. The Administrative Office of the United States Courts is the primary support agency for the U.S. federal courts. It is directly responsible to the Judicial Conference. The AO prepares the judiciary's budget, provides and operates secure court facilities, and provides the clerical and administrative staff essential to the efficient operation of the courts. The judicial councils are panels within each circuit charged with making "necessary and appropriate orders for the effective and expeditious administration of justice". The Federal Judicial Center is the primary research and education agency for the U.S. federal courts. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transfers and consolidates cases in multiple judicial districts that share common factual issues. The United States Marshals Service is an Executive Branch agency that is responsible for providing protection for the federal judiciary and transporting federal prisoners. The Supreme Court Police provide security for the Supreme Court building. Legal procedure[edit] The Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution as placing some additional restrictions on the federal courts. For example, the doctrines of mootness, ripeness, and standing prohibit district courts from issuing advisory opinions. Other doctrines, such as the abstention doctrine and the Rooker-Feldman doctrine limit the power of lower federal courts to disturb rulings made by state courts. The Erie doctrine requires federal courts to apply substantive state law to claims arising from state law (which may be heard in federal courts under supplemental or diversity jurisdiction). In difficult cases, the federal courts must either guess as to how a court of that state would decide the issue or, if that state accepts certified questions from federal courts when state law is unclear or uncertain, ask an appellate court of that state to decide the issue. Notably, the only federal court that can issue proclamations of federal law that bind state courts is the Supreme Court itself. Decisions of the lower federal courts, whether on issues of federal law or state law (i.e., the question was not certified to a state court), are persuasive but not binding authority in the states in which those federal courts sit.[5] Some commentators assert that another limitation upon federal courts is executive nonacquiescence in judicial decisions, where the executive simply refuses to accept them as binding precedent.[6][7] In the context of administration of U.S. internal revenue laws by the Internal Revenue Service, nonacquiescences (published in a series of documents called Actions on Decisions) "generally do not affect the application of stare decisis or the rule of precedent". The IRS "will recognize these principles and generally concede issues accordingly during administrative proceedings." In rare cases, however, the IRS may continue to litigate a legal issue in a given circuit even where the IRS has already lost a case on that issue in that circuit.[8] History[edit] The Articles of Confederation provided a clear basis for the initial establishment of United States of America judicial authority by Congress prior to the Constitution. This authority, enumerated by Article IX, allowed for the establishment of United States jurisdiction in the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, final appeals from state court decisions in all cases of captures of enemy ships, last resort for resolution of disputes between two or more states (including disputes over borders and jurisdiction), and final determination of controversies between private parties arising from conflicting land grants issued by two or more states prior to settlement of which state actually has jurisdiction over the territory. The Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture was the first United States Court established by the United States. Additional United States courts were established to adjudicate border disputes between the states of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts, Georgia and South Carolina. Lastly, a United States court was established for the Northwest Territory. When the Constitution came into force in 1789, Congress gained the authority to establish the federal judicial system as a whole. Only the Supreme Court was established by the Constitution itself. The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the first inferior (i.e., lower) federal courts established pursuant to the Constitution and provided for the first Article III judges. Virtually all U.S. law schools offer an elective course that focuses specifically on the powers and limitations of U.S. federal courts, with coverage of topics such as justiciability, abstention doctrines, the abrogation doctrine, and habeas corpus.[9] See also[edit] PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) CM/ECF (Case Management/Electronic Case Files) List of courts of the United States (outline of all state and federal courts in the United States) Federal Rules of Civil Procedure State supreme courts of the United States Uniformity and jurisdiction in U.S. federal court tax decisions References[edit] ^ Walston-Dunham, Beth (2012). Introduction to Law (6th ed.). Clifton Park: Delmar. p. 36. ISBN 9781133707981. Retrieved 26 November 2020. ^ a b The Editorial Board. (2013). Courts Without Judges. NYTimes. ^ Wheeler R. (2013) What's Behind all Those Judicial Vacancies Without Nominees?. Brookings Institution. ^ McMillion BJ. (2013). President Obama's First-Term U.S. Circuit and District Court Nominations: An Analysis and Comparison with Presidents Since Reagan. CRS. ^ People v. Leonard, 40 Cal. 4th 1370, 1416 (2007) (Ninth Circuit decisions do not bind Supreme Court of California). ^ Gregory C. Sisk, Litigation with the Federal Government (Philadelphia: American Law Institute, 2006), 418-425. ^ Robert J. Hume, How Courts Impact Federal Administrative Behavior (New York: Routledge, 2009), 92-106. ^ Mitchell Rogovin & Donald L. Korb, "The Four R's Revisited: Regulations, Rulings, Reliance, and Retroactivity in the 21st Century: A View From Within", 46 Duquesne Law Review 323, 366-367 (2008). ^ Michael L. Wells, A Litigation-Oriented Approach to Teaching Federal Courts Archived 2014-08-14 at the Wayback Machine, 53 St. Louis U. L.J. 857 (2009). Further reading[edit] Federal Court Concepts, Georgia Tech Creating the Federal Judicial System Debates on the Federal Judiciary: A Documentary History History of the Courts of the Federal Judiciary CourtWEB, Online Federal Court Opinions Information System External links[edit] Official website v t e Law of the United States Constitutional law and legislation Federalism Separation of powers Civil rights Act of Congress Bill (United States Congress) United States Code Courts of the United States Federal courts Supreme Appeals District (list) Bankruptcy Claims International Trade Tax State courts State supreme Education Law school Law School Admission Test Admission to the bar Types of law Child custody Child sexual abuse Civil procedure Conflict of laws Constitutional Contract Property Corporate Criminal Procedure Energy Gun Human rights Juvenile Privacy (State) Race State Tort Trust v t e United States articles History By event Pre-Columbian era Colonial era Thirteen Colonies military 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Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago United States Dependencies and other territories Anguilla Aruba Bermuda Bonaire British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Curaçao Greenland Guadeloupe Martinique Montserrat Puerto Rico Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saba Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten Turks and Caicos Islands United States Virgin Islands v t e Judiciaries of the United States States Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Federal district Washington, D.C. Insular areas American Samoa Guam Northern Mariana Islands Puerto Rico U.S. Virgin Islands Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Federal_judiciary_of_the_United_States&oldid=1002247893" Categories: Federal judiciary of the United States United States federal courts Courts in the United States Hidden categories: Webarchive template wayback links Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles needing additional references from December 2013 All articles needing additional references All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from May 2019 Wikipedia articles in need of updating from January 2018 All Wikipedia articles in need of updating Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikibooks Languages Български Čeština Deutsch Español فارسی Français 客家語/Hak-kâ-ngî 한국어 Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Polski Português Русский Simple English Türkçe 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 23 January 2021, at 14:56 (UTC). 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