Circuit Courts Research Paper

Assignment 2

Jurisdiction is the authority of a court to hear and decide on a matter. The textbook translates jurisdiction for us, “In Latin, juris means “law,” and diction means “to speak.” Thus, “the power to speak the law” is the literal meaning of the term jurisdiction.” Each and every court must have the power to speak over a matter before the matter can be disputed in their court. The court needs to have jurisdiction over the individuals or corporations involved, as well as jurisdiction over the matter itself. It would be pointless to have a case handled in a court when the court does not have to ability to hold the people or corporations accountable. Cases need to be processed in a court that can handle the matter and can enforce …show more content…
It is important that people file their cases in the right court. The federal court system has three levels: district courts, circuit courts and the Supreme Court. These federal court systems handle matters at a federal level. They usually oversee civil cases rather than criminal cases. These will include issues that fall under federal jurisdiction than state jurisdiction. District courts oversee matters in their district, which is usually their state, but some states have more than one district court. Most federal cases begin in district court. If they are escalated they go to circuit court, also known as the federal court of appeals. Circuit courts preside over more than one district. If anyone wants to appeal their case even higher, the only other step is to take the case to the Supreme Court. This is not easily done, as the Supreme Court decides what cases it will preside over, and only accept a small percentage of the cases the appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has a Chief Justice and eight associate justices. They oversee and vote on cases, each justice (including the Chief Justice) having one vote apiece. The Supreme Court justices have life long tenure, and are appointed by the President of the United