Supreme court

The structure of the federal courts

The Supreme Court sits at the top of the federal judiciary – underneath it are 13 courts of Appeals, known as the Circuit Courts (set up by the Judiciary Act of 1789). Below these are 94 courts known as District Courts.

Most cases begin in District Courts and from there to the United States Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court hears only those cases that it wishes to hear. It rejects 96% of cases that seek to be heard. It hears only those which it believes to be of major constitutional significance.

Supreme Court (with 9 justices)

94 District courts

13 Circuit Courts (1 in each regions plus 1 in DC and federal

circuit court)

There are nine members of the Supreme Court – 1 Chief Justice, and 8 associate justices. The number could be changed by Congress, but hasn’t been modified since 1869. They are appointed by the president and must be confirmed by a simple majority vote in the Senate. Once appointed and confirmed, they hold office for life. The only way they can be removed is through impeachment, which must be initiated by the House and tried by the Senate, which needs a two thirds majority to convict. If convicted, they are removed. No justice has ever been impeached, although Associate Justice Abe Fortas resigned in 1968 rather than face impeachment. Thus, barring impeachment, Justices leave the court only through voluntary retirement or death.

The current Chief, John Roberts, was preceded by Earl Warren, Warren Earl Burger and William Rehnquist, in reverse chronological order.

Justices broadly fall into one of two categories: conservative and liberal, with President’s tending to appoint justices who share their philosophy.

Another classification used is strict constructionist and loose constructionist. Strict judges are usually conservative in outlook. In their decisions, they tend to interpret the Constitutin in a strict of literal fashion. They often favour states’ rights over the power of the federal

government, and they tend to be appointed by Republican Presidents.John Roberts is an example of this. They focus on the text of the Constitution, and the Courts job is to derive and apply rules from the words chosen by those who framed the Constitution. Justice Scalia declared:‘the constitution I interpret and apply is not living but dead. Our first responsibility is not to make sense of the law, but to follow the text of the law.’She also says that the constitution is not meant to facilitate change, it is meant to impede change, to make change difficult.

Loose Judges on the other hand are liberal I outlook. They tend to interpret the Constitution in a loose fashion – reading elements into the document that they think the framers of the Constitution would approve. They to favour the power of the federal government over states’ rights, and they are usually appointed by Democratic Presidents. Justice Ginsburg is an example of this.

In contrast to Scalia, a loose constructionist such as Justice Breyer would say that he looks at the context of the constitution. The language of the text is only the starting point of an inquiry in which a law’s purpose and a decision’s likely consequence are the more important elements.He sees Scalia’s approach as too legalistic and

focused on precedent alone. Justice Kennedy has been the median Justice, that is, swinging the majority, in 97% heard between the 2006-2007 term.

Another way in which the Supreme Court’s decisions can be analysed is through the terms judicial activism and judicial restraint.

Activism means it sees itself as leading the way in the reform of American Society. Thus, the Court under Earl Warren was said to be activist in the 1950’s and 60’s in such deision as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and Miranda V Arizone in trying to move society along in the areas of black civil rights and the rights of arrested persons.