Unit VII judiciary

READING AND SPEAKING

Text A The US Court System

Task: read the text and translate it into Russian

Because the United States is a federal rather than a unitary system, there are federal and state courts. The judicial power of government, whether state or federal, is vested in a system in which there are several classes of courts to hear different classes of actions and/or perform different functions in the adjudication of cases. Within a court system each court has some limited and special authority, wich may be explained partly on the basis of convenience and efficiency.

The federal judicial system is composed of three tiers. The major trial courts are known as U.S. district courts. There are 94 of them. Each state has at least one, and the district court’s jurisdiction includes more than one. District court cases are heard by a single judge, who must be a resident of the district in which he or she presides. In addition to the district courts, several special courts created by Congress have original jurisdiction over certain types of cases, for example, tax courts, customs courts and courts martial (military tribunals).

Decisions of the district courts may be appealed to the 13 U.S. courts of appeals colloquially known as “circuit courts”. Several states comprise one federal judicial circuit. Judges in these courts usually sit in panels of three.

At the apex of the federal judicial system is the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court serves as the court of the last resort for all legal cases in the United States of the literally thousands of requests for review filed each year. The Supreme Court chooses about 300 cases to consider on their merits. The Supreme Court sits en banc¹ rather than in smaller panels, and at least six of the nine justices must be present to hear a case. Decisions need not be unanimous, they are based on the will of the majority.

The United States Supreme Court enjoys high level of respect and prestige even though the public is not very knowledgable about its actual working or decisions. Despite this lack of awareness, opinion surveys consistently reveal greater public confidence in the Supreme Court than in Congress or the presidency.

States are free to structure their judicial systems as they choose. Most have chosen a four-tier model. At the lowest level are courts of limited jurisdiction, which hear minor civil and criminal cases, for example, traffic, juvenile and small claims courts which settle disputes involving small sums of money. They are the “workhorses” of the state judicial system, processing the bulk of the state’s legal cases. The next level consists of state courts of general jurisdiction. These are the major trial courts empowered to hear more serious criminal cases and civil cases in which large sums of money are involved. Most states have a third tier, the intermediate court of appeals, as well as a top level, the state supreme court. Legal custom grants each losing litigant (with notable exception of the prosecution in a criminal case) one appeal. In states without an intermediate appellate court, the state Supreme Court must hear these appeals.

Another detail left to the states’ discretion is the method of selecting judges. While all federal judges are appointed for life terms by the U.S. president with the consent of the Senate, five methods are currently in use selecting judges in the states: partisan² election, nonpartisan elections, election by the state legislature, appointment by the governor and the merit system. The last method is the most popular and is sometimes called the "Missouri Plan" after the first state to adopt it. Judicial nomination boards screen applicants of judicial posts and send a list of the three to five best qualified candidates to the governor of the state, who makes the final choice.

Most crimes and violations of private rights, as well as civil law cases, are matters for state court adjudication. The Constitution limits federal court jurisdiction to cases involving the Constitutions, federal law, treaties, admiralty and maritime law, and cases where ambassadors, the federal government, or two or more states are parties. The federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over bankruptcy, patent and copyright law.

Article VI of the Constitution binds all judges to recognize the Constitution as “the supreme law of the Land”.

Notes:

1. en banc (Lat.) – в полном составе

2. partisan – приверженец политической партии , общественного течения