C&E U5: The Judicial Branch 10/27/15 Please complete 1-11 & submit at beginning of class 10/28 Name:

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS (no need to answer these)

v  What is the structure of the federal court system?

v  What is the role of the US Supreme Court? How was its power enhanced by the Marbury v. Madison decision?

v  How does the Supreme Court different from other federal courts?

v  What is the process by which a case reaches and is decided by the Supreme Court?

1) What is the only court created in Article III of the Constitution? (506)

2) Read “A Dual Court System” (506) and explain why there are 51 court systems in the US. (Hint: think 50 + 1)

3) Jurisdiction is an important word for this section!

a) Define jurisdiction, original jurisdiction and appellate jurisdiction. (508-509)

b) Think: if a man shoots and kills a friend in Durham, what kind of court would have original jurisdiction – state

or federal? What if North Carolina was suing South Carolina – what court would have original jurisdiction?

5) Two terms are described on 510 - judicial activism and judicial restraint. Suppose a president is conservative – are they more likely to nominate a justice who believes in judicial activism or judicial restraint? Explain.

6) What is the term of office for all federal judges? What is a strength and a weakness of this length of term?

7) Complete the chart below:

Name of federal courts / How many of them are there? / Do they have judges, juries or both? / What kinds of cases do they hear?
Supreme Court
(517)
US Courts of Appeals (513-514)
US District Courts
(512-513)

8) Explain how the case of Marbury vs. Madison established the principle of judicial review.(517-519)

9) In what cases does the Supreme Court have original jurisdiction? (519)

10) Why does the Supreme Court only hear a small number (100 of 8,000) of the cases that are appealed? (520)

* NOTE: Re-draw the graphic on p. 520 – we will go over this in class.
** NOTE: Read over “How the court operates” – we will do this in class.

11) Under Opinions (502), define each of those terms:
a) majority opinion b) precedent c) concurring opinion d) dissenting opinion

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C&E Court Cases – due 10/2915 For each of the following cases,

a) in two sentences, explain what the case is about

For example, Safford v. Redding: the case is about a middle school girl who was searched by school officials who believed she was hiding drugs. Savana Redding sued, saying her 4th Amendment right to privacy (protection against illegal search and seizure) was violated.

b) what the Supreme Court held (that means, how they ruled)

In a 7-2 vote, the Court ruled that the search was a violation of her rights.

Where can you find information about these cases?

Most can be found here: http://www.streetlaw.org/en/landmark/cases

Read the background summary and then click on Decisions then Summary to find the outcome

Others can be found here:http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/pop_landmark_cases/index.html

Or – YES – at Wikipedia.

Marbury v. Madison, 1803
Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857
Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
Schenck v. US, 1919
Korematsu v. US, 1944
Brown v. Board of Education, 1954
Mapp v. Ohio, 1961 / Gideon v. Wainwright, 1963
Miranda v. Arizona, 1966
Tinker v. Des Moines, 1969
Roe v. Wade, 1973
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, 1988
Texas v. Johnson, 1989