Federal judiciary of the United States

The federal judiciary of the United States is one of the three co-equal branches of the
Federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution
and laws of the federal government. Article III of the Constitution requires the
establishment of a Supreme Court and permits the Congress to create other federal
courts, and place limitations on their jurisdiction. Article III Federal judges are
appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate to serve until they resign, are
impeached and convicted, retire, or die.
The federal courts are composed of three levels of courts. The Supreme Court of the
United States is the court of last resort. It is generally an appellate court that operates
under discretionary review, which means that the Court can choose which cases to hear,
by granting of writs of certiorari. There is generally no right of appeal to the Supreme
Court. In a few situations (like lawsuits between state governments or some cases
between the federal government and a state) it sits as a court of original jurisdiction.
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate federal appellate courts. They
operate under a system of mandatory review which means they must hear all appeals of
right from the lower courts. In some cases, Congress has diverted appellate jurisdiction
to specialized courts, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review.
The United States district courts (one in each of the 94 federal judicial districts, as well
three territorial courts) are general federal trial courts, although in many cases Congress
has diverted original jurisdiction to specialized courts, such as the Court of International
Trade, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Alien Terrorist Removal Court,
or to Article I or Article IV tribunals. The district courts usually have jurisdiction to hear
appeals from such tribunals (unless, for example, appeals are to the Court of Appeals for
the Federal Circuit.)

Other tribunals[edit]
Besides these federal courts, described as Article III courts, there are other adjudicative
bodies described as Article I or Article IV courts in reference to the article of the
Constitution from which the court's authority stems.
There are a number of Article I courts with appellate jurisdiction over specific subject
matter including the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the Court of Appeals for
the Armed Forces, as well as Article I courts with appellate jurisdiction over specific
geographic areas such as the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The Article I courts
with original jurisdiction over specific subject matter include the bankruptcy courts (for
each district court), the immigration courts, the Court of Federal Claims, and the Tax
Court.
Article IV courts include the High Court of American Samoa and territorial courts such
as the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, District Court of Guam, and
District Court of the Virgin Islands.

Judges[edit]
Further information: United States federal judge
Federal judges, like Supreme Court Justices, are appointed by the President with the
consent of the Senate to serve until they resign, are impeached and convicted, retire, or
die.
In April 2013, about 10 percent of federal seats were vacant, with 85 of 856 positions
unfilled and 4 vacancies on the prestigious Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit.[1] The high vacancy rate has been attributed to politics, particularly
Senate filibustering of potential appointees by Senators.[1] In many cases there is no
nominee for the position; however, the Senate has a tradition of senatorial courtesy in
which nominees are only considered if the home senators approve.[2] In May 2013
Congressional Research Service published a paper analyzing the vacancies and
appointment process.[3]
Under Article I of the federal Constitution, Congress also has the power to establish
other tribunals, which are usually quite specialized, within the executive branch to assist
the President in the execution of his powers. Judges who staff them normally serve
terms of fixed duration, as do magistrate judges who assist Article III judges. Judges in
Article I tribunals attached to executive branch agencies are referred to as administrative
law judges (ALJs) and are generally considered to be part of the executive branch even
though they exercise quasi-judicial powers. With limited exceptions, they cannot render
final judgments in cases involving life, liberty, and private property rights, but may
make preliminary rulings subject to review by an Article III judge.

Administration[edit]

The Judicial Conference of the United States is the policymaking body of the
U.S. federal courts. The Conference is responsible for creating and revising
federal procedural rules pursuant to the Rules Enabling Act.

The Administrative Office of the United States Courts is the primary support
agency for the U.S. federal courts. It is directly responsible to the Judicial
Conference. The AO prepares the judiciary's budget, provides and operates
secure court facilities, and provides the clerical and administrative staff essential
to the efficient operation of the courts.

The judicial councils are panels within each circuit charged with making
"necessary and appropriate orders for the effective and expeditious
administration of justice".

The Federal Judicial Center is the primary research and education agency for the
U.S. federal courts.

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transfers and consolidates cases in

multiple judicial districts that share common factual issues.

The United States Marshals Service is responsible for providing protection for
the federal judiciary and transporting federal prisoners.

The Supreme Court Police provide security for the Supreme Court building.

Legal procedure[edit]
The Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution as placing some additional
restrictions on the federal courts. For example, the doctrines of mootness, ripeness, and
standing prohibit district courts from issuing advisory opinions. Other doctrines, such as
the abstention doctrine and the Rooker-Feldman doctrine limit the power of lower
federal courts to disturb rulings made by state courts. The Erie doctrine requires federal
courts to apply substantive state law to claims arising from state law (which may be
heard in federal courts under supplemental or diversity jurisdiction). In difficult cases,
the federal courts must either guess as to how a court of that state would decide the
issue or, if that state accepts certified questions from federal courts when state law is
unclear or uncertain, ask an appellate court of that state to decide the issue.
Notably, the only federal court that can issue proclamations of federal law that bind
state courts is the Supreme Court itself. Decisions of the lower federal courts, whether
on issues of federal law or state law (i.e., the question was not certified to a state court),
are persuasive but not binding authority in the states in which those federal courts sit.[4]
Some commentators assert that another limitation upon federal courts is executive
nonacquiescence in judicial decisions, where the executive simply refuses to accept
them as binding precedent.[5][6] In the context of administration of U.S. internal revenue
laws by the Internal Revenue Service, nonacquiescences (published in a series of
documents called Actions on Decisions) "generally do not affect the application of stare
decisis or the rule of precedent". The IRS "will recognize these principles and generally
concede issues accordingly during administrative proceedings." In rare cases, however,
the IRS may continue to litigate a legal issue in a given circuit even where the IRS has
already lost a case on that issue in that circuit.[7]

History[edit]
The U.S. Articles of Confederation provided a clear basis for the initial establishment of
United States of America judicial authority by Congress prior to the U.S. Constitution.
This authority, enumerated by Article IX, allowed for the establishment of United States
jurisdiction in the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, final appeals
from state court decisions in all cases of captures of enemy ships, last resort for
resolution of disputes between two or more states (including disputes over borders and
jurisdiction), and final determination of controversies between private parties arising
from conflicting land grants issued by two or more states prior to settlement of which
state actually has jurisdiction over the territory. The Court of Appeals in Cases of
Capture was the first United States Court established by the United States. Additional
United States courts were established to adjudicate border disputes between the states of
Connecticut and Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts, Georgia and South
Carolina. Lastly, a United States court was established for the Northwest Territory.

When the U.S. Constitution was fully ratified in 1788, Congress gained the authority to
establish the federal judicial system as a whole. Only the U.S. Supreme Court was
established by the U.S. Constitution itself. The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the first
inferior (i.e., lower) federal courts established pursuant to the U.S. Constitution and
provided for the first Article III judges.
Virtually all U.S. law schools offer an elective course that focuses specifically on the
powers and limitations of U.S. federal courts, with coverage of topics such as
justiciability, abstention doctrines, the abrogation doctrine, and habeas corpus.[8]