Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
A woman in Manhattan is tried in a federal court for a federal crime and found guilty. She believes the judge made a mistake about the law.Where does her case go next?
- Picture the three levels of the federal courts, from the bottom: 94 district courts, 13 courts of appeals, and the Supreme Court.
- Her trial was in a federal trial court, a U.S. district court. That is where a federal case begins.
- The losing side may appeal: ask the next court up to review the decision. The next court up is a U.S. court of appeals. For Manhattan, that is the Second Circuit.
- A court of appeals holds no new trial. Usually three judges read the record of the trial, hear the lawyers argue, and decide whether the trial judge made a mistake about the law.
- Only after that could she ask the Supreme Court to hear her case.
Answer: A U.S. court of appeals
Example 2
Kansas sues Colorado over how much water from the Arkansas River each state may use. The case begins in the U.S. Supreme Court.Original or appellate jurisdiction?
- Remember the two words. Original jurisdiction is the power to hear a case first, when it begins. Appellate jurisdiction is the power to hear it on appeal, after a lower court has decided it.
- Here no lower court has decided anything. The case begins in the Supreme Court.
- Article III says why: in cases “in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction.” (Party means one of the sides in a case.) Here both sides are states.
- So the Supreme Court hears this case first: original jurisdiction. Almost all of its other work is appellate.
Answer: Original jurisdiction
Where this is taught: Civics, Chapter 5: The courts · Civics, Chapter 5: Original and appellate jurisdiction · Civics, Chapter 5: How a case reaches the Supreme Court
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 3, Lesson 3: Levels and Branches of Government · Map of the Terrain, topic 18: The courts and judicial review
The drill
Ten questions
How many:
Tap your answer to each one. A few questions ask you to choose words from a drop-down instead, the way the GED test does. Then press Check my answers at the bottom.Circle your answer to each one; where there are brackets, circle the choice that fits. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.