4/22/08 president can't remove regular bureaucrats, but can fire secretaries can unappoint anyone who he has appointed, but can't fill the space again until approved by congress random anecdotes...yay, she tells a lot cause she uses to do something in the legislature Grace Stapf stapfg@email.uah.edu 2402854473 common law - social customs that provide a fairly predictable set of rules changes daily added to by every case all state courts excpet louisiana rely on it statutory law - regulatory/administrative law - made by bureaucracy executive orders - laws made by pres courts started out as least powerful, now close to most powerful judicial review - gives the courts the ability to declare acts of the government (including laws) unconstitutional and strike them down strict constructionist - reads into the law that things not in the law can not be ruled upon (let the states deal with it), judicially conservative [judicial ]activism - lots of names for it, judges should understand the basic principles of the constitution and apply them where there is no specific applicaion (what law should be vs what might actually be said) structure of federal courts, article 3 only sets up the supreme court of US and is still vague, says all other federal courts/jurisdictions are creations of congress jurisdiction - authority of a particular court to handle a case constitution does not specify number of justices on supreme court appellate jursdiction - cases that can reach the SC on appeal, must start in state or other courts original jurisdiction setup in article 3 - types of cases that can start in a court federal district courts are typically ones with original jurisdiction original jurisdiction for supremem court - cases involving ambassadors, consuls, and public ministers and those in which a state shall be party supreme court doesn't have to take appealed cases, can ignore congress controls court budgets constitutional courts (article 3 courts) - courts setup by constitutional, lifetime appointment, judges have constitutional protection, salary can't be reduced district courts - get a full trial w/ jury, handle civil and criminal cases court of claims - has jurisdiction over cases where people claim to be owed something by the government customs court court of customs and patent appeals court of international trade circuit courts of appeal - 1789, 1st created, currently 12, country divided into districts, between 6 and 28 judges per court, no juries, usually 3 judges per case, sometimes "en banc" (all judges sit in) legislative courts (article 1 courts) - not entitled to constitutional protections, set terms/limits, can have salary reduced lots of jurisdictional overlaps with constitutional courts court of military appeals court of veterans appeals courts of territories tax court court of federal claims court of international trade functions of these two categories of courts differ pres nominates for judgeship, senate confirms or disapproves tradition of senatorial courtesy - senator to senator, not pres - if pres makes nomination and senators of pres's party in state where judgeship is going to be object, the rest of the senators will agree to vote the nomination down, so the pres better consult with those members of his party to save time US has a dual court system, US courts, state courts, 90% of cases come in front of state courts, role is to adjudicate between two entities (person, organization, etc) US courts differ from those in other countries since constitutional issues could come up at anytime, and the constitution must prevail, other law becomes null and void US courts use the practice of an adversary system, 2 sides, not 3, not 400, 2 primary responsibility of bringing the case to court is that of the adversaries, court only supposed to bring in law and not preferences federal queestion cases - diversity cases - suits between entities of different states separation of powers cases - if a suit between two entities is in excess of 50000, can be tried by either state or federal federal only federal criminal law broken - federal district court (income taxes, destroying a mailbox, controversies between states) courts send many cases back down to lower courts (district courts) automatic death penalty appeal, only one state does it if you want your case to go to the supreme court, writ of certiorari, court order made more certain, appealing application of law, only takes 4 justices to agree to hear case court tries to reserve time for cases in which a significant federal or constitutional question has been raised, two courts of appeal that have decided two similar issues in different ways highest court in particular state if court does not grant writ, decision of previous court stands, "stare decisis"