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Judical
Types of Cases Tried in Federal Court
The majority of court cases in the United States are state court cases. In order for a case to be tried in a federal court it has to be; a case in which the person being tried has violated a federal crime, a civil suit in which the two parties are from different states, or the crime was committed in national water and was not in a specific state.
Structure of the Federal Court System
District Courts
- 91 Courts (at least one in each state)
- 678 Justices
- They have Original Jurisdiction; which means that they are the first court to here a case that happened in their district.
- The only Federal courts to hold actual trials
- Hear about 350,000 cases a year
Appeals Courts
- 12 Courts
- 178 Justices (usually has a panel of 3 or more justices to hear a case)
- Do not hold actual trials but hear cases that have been appealed because there was an error in the district court the case was in before.
Supreme Courts
- 1 Court room
- 9 Justices ( 1 chief justice and 8 associate justices)
- Choose which cases they want to here, often because they conflict with other supreme court rulings, they have some historical significant stand out, or the case was ruled two different ways in the lower level courts.
- The supreme court agrees to hear less than 1% of the cases given to them.
- 4 justices have to agree to hear a case for the supreme court to hear the case.
Famous Cases of the Supreme Court
