This document provides an overview of the US legal system and Supreme Court. It discusses how laws are created and categorized, the roles and jurisdictions of different courts, factors considered in Supreme Court nominations, models of judicial decision making, and types of opinions issued by the Court. The key purposes of law are to provide security, predictability, and enforce societal values. Criminal law addresses behaviors harming citizens while civil law regulates interactions between individuals.

1. POL 205
Fall 2018

4.  Provide Security
 Provide Predictability
 Conflict Resolution
 Enforce Conformity to SocietalValues
 Distribute Benefits Costs of Society

6. SUBSTANTIVE LAW
 Actions we can and cannot
legally perform under law
PROCEDURAL LAW
 Establishes procedures
used to conduct the law

7.  Behaviors threatening, harming, or
endangering safety of citizens
 Crimes against State
 Examples: Theft, Assault, Robbery, Murder
 Jail time or community service

8. FELONIES
 Murder, arson, burglary,
kidnapping
 Jail time
MISDEMEANORS
 Disorderly conduct,
trespassing, vandalism
 Probation or community
service

9.  Regulate interactions between individuals
 Plaintiff sues Defendant
 Examples:
 Defacing property
 Causing physical harm
 Breaking contract

10.  Statutory Law:
 Law made by federal or state legislatures
 Administrative Law:
 Law established by bureaucracy
 Constitutional Law
 Law regarding meaning of Constituiton

12. “The judicial power of the United States,
shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and
in such inferior courts as Congress may
from time to time ordain and establish.”

13.  Judges keep jobs for “good behavior”
 Establishes jurisdiction of Supreme Court

14.  How many members will be on the
Supreme Court?
 Will there be lower courts?
 What actual powers will the judiciary have?

16. STATE
SUPREME
COURT
TRIAL
COURT
APPELLATE
COURT

17.  Trial Court
 Cases heard for first time (original jurisdiction)
 Court of Appeals
 Hear appeals from trial courts
 State Supreme Court
 All decisions are final unless federal question

18. .
U.S.
SUPREME
COURT
APPELLATE
COURTS
DISTRICT
COURTS

19. DISTRICT COURTS
 94 trial courts in federal system
 Original jurisdiction over
Constitutional questions
APPELLATE COURTS
 12 Circuit Courts
 Appellate jurisdiction;
Cases from lower courts

26.  Politics vs. Court Integrity
 What would you have decided if you had been
a justice on the Marshall Court?

27.  Establishment of Judicial Review
 Power of courts to determine whether a law or
parts of laws are constitutional
 Check on President and Congress

29. Since the 1930s, the
Supreme Court has
been active on a
number of
important political
and social issues.

31. Gerald Ford John Paul Stevens

32.  Nominee’s Ideological and Policy Preferences
 Judicial Competence
 Demographic Factors
 Political Environment

33.  Views hot-button issues could tip the Court
(and future decisions) in president’s favor

34.  Nominating someone seen as generally
qualified can quicken confirmation process
George W. Bush nominating
White House Counsel Harriet
Miers for a vacancy on the
Supreme Court.
Miers eventually withdrew
her nomination.

35. Thurgood
Marshall
Sandra Day
O’Connor
Sonia
Sotomayor

36.  What factors should a president consider?
 Approval Rating
 Senate Control
 Legislative Goals

38. ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
 Straight to Supreme Court
 Many types of cases
APPELLATE JURISDICTION
 Heard via appeal from
lower court
 Majority of cases
 Writ of certiorari :
Court agrees to review a
case on appeal
 Stare Decisis
(“let the decision stand”)

39.  Four justices must agree hear a given case
(“Rule of Four”)
 Who else has influence over the Court?
 Solicitor General
 Amicus curiae briefs

41.  Legal Model
 Focus on legal principles
 Judicial Restraint vs. Judicial Activism
 Attitudinal Model
 Focus on policy preferences
 How we do know preferences? (Party of President)
 Strategic Model
 Focus on strategic considerations
 Justices’ decision-making; political environment

43.  Majority Opinion
 Role of Chief Justice in opinion assignment
 Plurality Opinion
 Absence of majority (4-3-2 decision)
 Agree on ruling, but NOT on exact reasoning
 Concurring Opinion
 Agree with ruling; Disagree with reasoning
 Dissenting Opinion
 Disagree with ruling; Disagree with reasoning