Jurisdictions of the Federal and State Court Systems

The national and state governments have different, but sometimes overlapping, spheres of power. This holds true also for their court systems. The power of a court system to hear and decide a case is called its jurisdiction.

A case may originate in either a federal or a state court, depending on the nature of the suit.

Although there are many types of courts, the main state and federal judicial systems involve general, trial courts, with appeals taken to one or more higher courts.

Federal courts have particularized subject-matter jurisdiction, usu­ally based on "federal questions" or diversity jurisdiction. State courts have general subject-matter jurisdiction.

Courts follow their own procedural law. However, in some cases, they may apply the substantive law of another state.

For torts, the applicable law is usually that where the injury oc­curred.

For contracts, courts generally look to the law intended (expressly
or implicitly) by the parties to the contract.

The federal courts were provided for in the Constitution of the United States on the theory that the judicial power of the federal government could not be entrusted to the states, which was necessary for a strong national government. Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, organizing the Supreme Court of the United States and establishing a system of federal courts of inferior jurisdiction.

The U.S. Supreme Court has original jurisdiction when the parties include
ambassadors or other foreign officials, or when two states are the opposing
parties. However, almost all of the cases heard by the Supreme Court arise
out of its appellate jurisdiction: the power to hear appeals from other courts'
decisions. Appeals generally involve interpretation of constitutional law
and/or federal statutes.

A decision of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed to any other court. Neither the President nor Congress can change their decisions.

The Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. They are nominated by the President but must be approved by the Senate. Once approved, they hold office as Supreme Court justices for life.

Other federal courts are the district courts, the courts of appeals, the Claims Court, the Court of International Trade, the Tax Court, and the territorial courts established in the federally administered territories of the United States.

The federal courts' power is limited to actual “cases or controversies”. This provision has prevented federal courts from furnishing advisory opinion, even if requested by another branch of government. (Many state courts can and do issue advisory opinions). The case must be a real dispute between opposing parties with actual interests in the case (standing to sue, because of direct and immediate injury from, or other such connection with, the mater at issue). The proceeding must be in an adversarial format. Federal district courts have original jurisdiction (meaning that proceedings commence there) over federal criminal cases and certain specified civil cases.

The federal courts are limited to hearing cases specifically placed within their power (subject-matter jurisdiction) by the U.S. Constitution or other laws. Nu­merous federal statutes, as well as certain exclusively federal areas under the Constitution (e.g., admiralty, bankruptcy, patents, copyrights), give the federal courts a vast array of subjects to decide; these areas are called federal questions (cases involving the federal constitution, statutes, or treaties). While sometimes federal court jurisdiction is exclusive (e.g., prosecution of persons charged with violating federal criminal laws), in some areas jurisdiction is concurrent, that is, state courts can also hear cases on these subjects.

In addition to federal questions, Congress has provided another form of subject-matter jurisdiction to the federal courts: diversity jurisdiction. This means that, when the opposing parties in a civil lawsuit are citizens of different states, a matter based on state law (and normally brought before a state court) can be heard in federal court if one of the parties requests it and if the amount in controversy is above $50,000. (Corporations are treated as being "citizens" of both their place of incorporation and their principal business location; for part­nerships, however, courts look to the citizenship of each general partner.)

Note that diversity must be complete; that is, in cases involving multiple parties not even one party may have the same state citizenship as an opposing party. (It does not matter if parties on the same side, for example, two plaintiffs, come from the same state.)

If a defendant wishes to transfer a case from one state to another, or from state court to federal court, his/her request will be for removal. Such requests must be made at the beginning of the case and are premised on the claim that the correct jurisdiction lies in another court. In seeking a transfer from state to federal court, the defendant is often simply exercising a right to invoke diversity jurisdiction, or some other concurrent federal jurisdiction, which the plaintiff failed to use but the defendant also has a right to choose.

Of course, there are other types of courts. For instance, many federal and state administrative agencies have their own judicial systems. There are specialized courts (e.g., federal bankruptcy courts), and states generally have special courts (ones without juries) for cases involving small amounts or special litigants, such as orphans or landlords and tenants. However, the general trial courts, with juries available, remain the crucial arena for most important cases.

Federaljudges are appointed for life. At age 70, a judge may go on ‘'inactive status" at full pay.

The following diagram shows the structure of the federal court system.