Chapter 14 Terms

Front 1

activist approach (judicial)

Back 1

1. Def - The view that judges should discern the general principles underlying the Constitution and its often vague language and assess how best to apply them in contemporary circumstances, in some cases with the guidance of moral or economic philosophy.
2. Personal - Judges should interpret the law, and in that way make policy
3. Example - Judicial activism can result in controversy over whether judges should work strictly within the confines enumerated in the language of the Constitution.

Front 2

amicus curiae

Back 2

1. Def - "friend of the court"; Refers to interested groups or individuals, not directly involved in a suit, who may file legal briefs or make oral arguments in support of one side.
2. Personal - Sympathetic interest groups or individuals who send in their own briefs about cases
3. Example - Amicus curiae is a sort of lobbying in order to advocate a certain interest or interests.

Front 3

brief

Back 3

1. Def - A legal document prepared by an attorney representing a party before a court.
2. Personal - paper from an attorney
3. Example - The document sets forth the facts of the case, summarizes the law, gives the arguments for its side, and discusses other relevant cases

Front 4

civil law

Back 4

1. Def - The body of rules defining relationships among private citizens.
2. Personal - law concerning relationships between people
3. Example - It consists of both statutes and the accumulated customary law embodied in judicial decisions (the "common law").

Front 5

class-action suit

Back 5

1. Def - A case brought into court by a person on behalf of not only himself or herself but all other persons in the country under similar circumstances.
2. Personal - a suit on behalf of a "class" of people.
3. Example - In Brown v. Board of Education, the court decided that not only Linda Brown but all others similarly situated had the right to attend a local public school of their choice without regard to race.

Front 6

concurring opinion

Back 6

1. Def - A Supreme Court opinion by one or more justices who agree with the majority's conclusion but for different reasons.
2. Personal - an opinion that agrees with the ruling, but for a different reason.
3. Example - The reason that a judge agrees with a ruling can be entirely different to the majority opinion, and they want to make that distinction.

Front 7

conservative/strict-constructionist approach

Back 7

1. Def - the view that judges should decide cases on the basis of the language of the Constitution
2. Personal - Strictly following the Constitution
3. Example - People who take constructionist approaches to law insist on following what the Founders would have wanted.

Front 8

constitutional court

Back 8

1. Def - A federal court exercising the judicial powers found in Article III of the Constitution and whose judges are given constitutional protection.
2. Personal - courts established by Article III of the Constitution.
3. Example - The most important constitutional courts are the Supreme Court, the 91 district courts, and the courts of appeals.

Front 9

court of appeals

Back 9

1. Def - The federal courts with authority to review decisions by federal district courts, regulatory commissions, and certain other federal courts.
2. Personal - Hears appeals of lower courts.
3. Example - Such courts only hear appeals, and there are a total of thirteencourts of appeals in the US and its territories.

Front 10

criminal law

Back 10

1. Def - the body of rules defining offenses that, though they harm an individual (such as murder, rape, and robbery), are considered to be offenses against society as a whole and as a consequence warrant punishment by and in the name of society.
2. Personal - Crimes against an individual that are tried as an offense to society as a whole.
3. Example - Most criminal law cases are handled in state courts.

Front 11

dissenting opinion

Back 11

1. Def - A Supreme Court opinion by one or more justices in the minority to explain the minority's disagreement with the Court's ruling.
2. Personal - the opinion of the losing side of a SC case.
3. Example - Opinions are written in order to show to the public what deliberations occurred when making the ruling on a Supreme Court case.

Front 12

district courts

Back 12

1. Def - The lowest federal courts where federal cases begin -- the only federal courts where trials are held.
2. Personal - lowest federal courts
3. Example - There are a total of 91 district courts in the US.

Front 13

dual sovereignty

Back 13

1. Def - Concept that the federal government and state governments have their own sovereignties and jurisdictions.
2. Personal - separate bubbles
3. Example - Dual sovereignty can cause conflict when one state has a law that disagrees with the federal law.

Front 14

federal-question cases

Back 14

1. Def - Cases concerning the constitution, federal law, or treaties over which the federal courts have jurisdiction as described in the Constitution.
2. Personal - Cases relating to federal law and the Constitution.
3. Example - These sorts of cases go to Federal courts.

Front 15

fee-shifting

Back 15

1. Def - A law or rule that allows the plaintiff (the part that initiates the lawsuit) to collect its legal costs from the defendant if the defendant loses.
2. Personal - having the loser pay for the winner's expenses.
3. Example - Fee-shifting is one way to make otherwise very expensive cases more affordable.

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in forma pauperis

Back 16

1. Def - A procedure whereby a poor person can file and be heard in court as a pauper, free of charge.
2. Personal - presenting yourself as a "pauper" so the case is free.
3. Example - This is one way of making otherwise expensive cases more affordable.

Front 17

judicial review

Back 17

1. Def - The power of the courts to declare acts of the legislature and of the executive to be unconstitutional and hence null and void.
2. Personal - declaring laws and actions unconstitutional
3. Example - Judicial review is a powerful weapon of the Judicial Branch in shaping public policy.

Front 18

legislative court

Back 18

1. Def - A court that is created by Congress for some specialized purpose and staffed with judges who do not enjoy the protection of Article III of the Constitution.
2. Personal - courts made by Congress
3. Example - Legislative courts include the Court of Military Appeals and the territorial courts.

Front 19

liberal/activist bloc

Back 19

1. Def - Court voting is divided into blocs, and liberal bloc is when the Court is making more liberal and activist approaches to cases.
2. Personal - liberal/activist rulings by the SC
3. Example - An example of a liberal/activist Supreme Court Justice is Thurgood Marshall.

Front 20

litmus test

Back 20

1. Def - The term is used in politics to mean a teset of ideological purity, a way of finding out whether a person is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal or conservative or what his or her views are on a controversial question.
2. Personal - test for ideological purity
3. Example - Presidents want to use litmus tests to gauge ideological purity in order to ensure that they are appointing individuals that will agree with their policies.

Front 21

Marbury v. Madison

Back 21

1. Def - Landmark Supreme Court case that established judicial review.
2. Personal - established judicial review.
3. Example - The case resulted between a dispute over whether a certain law was constitutional or not.

Front 22

McCulloch v. Maryland

Back 22

1. Def - Landmark Supreme Court case that designated federal law will always trump state law, and expanded on the use of the necessary and proper clause.
2. Personal - Federal law trumps state law.
3. Example - There was a dispute over whether a state can tax a government institution, and if the government can even make a national bank.

Front 23

opinion of the court

Back 23

1. Def - A supreme court opinion written by one ore more justices in the majority to explain the decision in a case.
2. Personal - The majority opinion on a SC case.
3. Example - The Chief Justice assigns a justice to write the opinion of the court, and that could also be him/herself.

Front 24

per curiam opinion

Back 24

1. Def - A brief, unsigned opinion issued by the SC to explain its ruling.
2. Personal - statement on the ruling of the SC.
3. Example - This is different from a concurring, dissenting, or opinion of the Court in that it is unsigned and has no name to it.

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plaintiff

Back 25

1. Def - the party who initiates the suit
2. Personal - complainer
3. Example - The plaintiff, on certain cases, can have a fee-shift at the end of a case and have the loser pay the winner's expenses.

Front 26

political question

Back 26

1. Def - AN issue that the Court refuses to consider because it believes the Constitution has left it entirely to another branch to decide.
2. Personal - a question left in the hands of another branch of gov't.
3. Example - The court's view of such issues may change over time and decide that it will hear a case later on.

Front 27

remedy

Back 27

1. Def - A judicial order preventing or redressing a wrong or enforcing a right.
2. Personal - remedy for an issue
3. Example - When one person sues another, the remedy is pretty straightforward -- the loser must pay the winner for some injury, or to abide to the terms of a broken contract.

Front 28

Section 1983 case

Back 28

1. Def - A provision in the U.S. Code which allows a citizen to sue state and local government officials who have deprived the citizen of some constitutional right or withheld some benefit to which the citizen is entitled.
2. Personal - A case where a citizen sues a government.
3. Example - If the citizen wins, he or she can collect money damages and lawyers' fees from the government.

Front 29

senatorial courtesy

Back 29

1. Def - tradition that before the President appoints a district judge, he/she will consult the Senators of that state.
2. Personal - courtesy of consulting a senator about a judge appointment.
3. Example - If a senator disapproves of a nomination, that nomination is almost always killed.

Front 30

solicitor general

Back 30

1. Def - The third in line of the general of attorneys in the US Gov't.
2. Personal - third in line of general attorneys.
3. Example - Solicitor general is frequently in the Supreme Court to represent the US Gov't in cases.

Front 31

sovereign immunity

Back 31

1. Def - a doctrine that a citizen cannot sue the government without its consent.
2. PErsonal - a citizen can't sue the government without the government's consent to be sued.
3. Example - By statue, Congress has given its consent for the gov't to be sued in many cases involving a dispute over a contract or damage done as a result of negligence.

Front 32

standing

Back 32

1. Def - A legal concept establishing who is entitled to bring a lawsuit to court.
Personal - being entitled to bring a suit to court.
3. Example - An individual must ordinarily show personal harm in order to acquire standing and be heard in court.

Front 33

stare decisis

Back 33

1. Def - A Latin term meaning "let the decision stand." The practice of basing judicial decisions on precedents established in similar cases decided in the past.
2. Personal - basing decisions on past decisions on similar cases.
3. Example - This is done in order to keep a consistency in Court rulings.

Front 34

Supreme Court of the United States

Back 34

1. Def - Highest court in the federal judiciary specifically created by the Constitution.
2. Personal - highest of the Article III Courts established by the Constitution.
3. Example - It is composed of nine justices and has appellate jurisdiction over lower federal courts and the highest state courts. It also possesses a limited original jurisdiction.

Front 35

swing bloc

Back 35

1. Def - one of the periods of voting blocs of the Supreme Court in which the voting was more middle-ground, or moderate conservative.
2. Personal - a time of swing voting for the Supreme Court.
3. Example - The swing bloc of the Supreme Court was headed by Justices White and Stevens.

Front 36

writ of certiorari

Back 36

1. Def - "made more certain"; An order issued by a higher court to a lower court to send up the record of a case for review.
2. Personal - approval for the SC to review a case.
3. Example - Most cases reach the Supreme Court through the write of certiorari, issued when at least four of the nine justices feel that case should be reviewed.