An American Perspective: United States Courts

Chapter 3 - Courts

§2. United States Courts

Being that courts are the person and the suite (or, the witnesses or followers of the plaintiff) of the sovereign, and the only way to enforce judgment and legal sanctions on a guilty party through due process, or for someone to prove their innocence and be lawfully admonished from a claim, it has been held as an extremely important aspect of individual liberty. It is mentioned within the body of the Magna Carta that, “Henceforth the writ which is called Praecipe shall not be served on any one for any holding so as to cause a free man to lose his court.”202

In the preamble to the Constitution for the United States of America, it was decreed that one of the reasons for ordaining that instrument and the organizational structure of government was to establish justice.

“Prior to the date of the Constitution, the people had not any national tribunal to which they could resort for justice; the distribution of justice was then confined to State judicatories, in whose institution and organization the people of the other States had no participation, and over whom they had not the least control. There was then no general court of appellate jurisdiction by whom the errors of State courts, affecting either the nation at large or the citizens of any other State, could be revised and corrected. Each State was obliged to acquiesce in the measure of justice, which another State might yield to her or to her citizens, and that even in cases where State considerations were not always favorable to the most exact measure. There was danger that, from this source, animosities would in time result, and as the transition from animosities to hostilities was frequent in the history of independent States, a common tribunal for the termination of controversies became desirable from motives both of justice and of policy.
Prior also to that period, the United States had, by taking a place among the nations of the earth, become amenable to the laws of nations, and it was their interest as well as their duty to provide that those laws should be respected and obeyed; in their national character and capacity, the United States were responsible to foreign nations for the conduct of each State relative to the laws of nations and the performance of treaties, and there the inexpediency of referring all such questions to State courts, and particularly to the courts of delinquent States, became apparent. While all the States were bound to protect each and the citizens of each, it was highly proper and reasonable that they should be in a capacity not only to cause justice to be done to each and the citizens of each, but also to cause justice to be done by each and the citizens of each, and that not by violence and force, but in a stable, sedate, and regular course of judicial procedure.”203

The power that emanated from that was deemed the judicial branch, and was decreed within Article III of that instrument.

“It may be asked, what is the precise sense and latitude in which the words "to establish justice," as here used, are to be understood? The answer to this question will result from the provisions made in the Constitution on this head. They are specified in the second section of the third article, where it is ordained that the judicial power of the United States shall extend to ten descriptions of cases, viz.,..”204

“Article III, Sect. 1 The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.
Sect. 2 The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more States, between a state and citizens of another state, between citizens of different States, between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens or subjects.
In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the supreme court shall have original jurisdiction. In all other cases before mentioned, the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress may by law have directed.”205

“Even this cursory view of the judicial powers of the United States leaves the mind strongly impressed with the importance of them to the preservation of the tranquillity, the equal sovereignty, and the equal right of the people.”206

They further defined the courts and various officers and oaths in the judiciary act of 1789 (207), and continued to define and expand the federal judiciary power through acts up until the recent Federal Circuit Act of 1982 (208). The superior and inferior courts were divided into the jurisdictions of districts and circuits with allotted cognizance to specified subject matter, as mentioned in Article III, section 2 of the U.S. constitution, and laid the system of the appellate process in place. The appellate system is a call for a higher authority to review the decisions and judgments of a court of inferior rank.

Appellate- Pertaining to or having cognizance of appeals and other proceedings for the judicial review of adjudications.209
Appeal- Resort to a superior court to review the decision of an inferior court or administrative agency. There are two stages of appeal in the federal and many state court systems; to wit, appeal from trial court to intermediate appellate court and then to Supreme Court.210

[202 Magna Carta – The Great Charter – Article 34 (1215)
203 Chisholm v. Georgia (US) 2 Dall 419, 454, 1 L Ed 440, 455 @SLL (1793), p. 2 U.S. 474
204 Chisholm v. Georgia (US) 2 Dall 419, 454, 1 L Ed 440, 455 @SLL (1793), p. 2 U.S. 475
205 Constitution for the United States of America, Article III, Sections 2 & 3
206 Chisholm v. Georgia (US) 2 Dall 419, 454, 1 L Ed 440, 455 @SLL (1793), p. 2 U.S. 476
207 The Judiciary Act of 1789: "An Act to establish the Judicial Courts of the United States." 1 Stat. 73. (September 24, 1789).
208 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit: "An Act To establish a United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, to establish a United States Claims Court, and for other purposes." 96 Stat. 25. (April 2, 1982).
209 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 89 (1979)
210 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 88 (1979)]