is one national federal appeals court, called the Federal Circuit, that hears specialized cases, such as patent and civil service personnel cases, that arise throughout the country.
There are also twelve regional courts of appeals based in various parts of the country. Each one hears cases coming through the federal court system from specific geographic regions of the country.
D.C. Circuit (located in the District of Columbia): covers the District of Columbia
First Circuit (Boston): Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico Second Circuit (New York City): Connecticut, New York, and Vermont Third Circuit (Philadelphia): Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Virgin Islands Fourth Circuit (Richmond): Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia
Fifth Circuit (New Orleans): Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas
Sixth Circuit (Cincinnati): Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee
Seventh Circuit (Chicago): Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin
Eighth Circuit (St. Louis): Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota
Ninth Circuit (San Francisco): Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands
Tenth Circuit (Denver): Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming
Eleventh Circuit (Atlanta): Alabama, Florida, and Georgia
When a party loses a case before a three-judge panel, the losing party can then appeal for full-panel, or en banc, review. En banc review means that the full panel of non-retired members of the federal appeals court will sit and hear the case. This number generally ranges from eleven to fifteen. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, Rule 35, provides: “An en banc hearing or rehearing is not favored and ordinarily will not be granted unless: (1) en banc consideration is necessary to secure or maintain uniformity of the court’s decisions; or (2) the proceeding involves a question of extreme importance.” There is no exact science as to when a court might grant en banc review. But Rule 35 offers two possibilities—when the panel decision conflicts with an earlier panel decision or when the case is extremely important.
U.S. Supreme Court’s Original Jurisdiction
“The Supreme Court shall have original and exclusive jurisdiction of all controversies between two or more States. (b) The Supreme Court shall have original but not exclusive jurisdiction of: (1) All actions or proceedings to which ambassadors, other public ministers, consuls, or vice consuls of foreign states are parties; (2) All controversies between the United States and a State; (3) All actions or proceedings by a State against the citizens of another State or against aliens.”
JURISDICTION
What is jurisdiction?
Jurisdiction refers to the legal power and authority of a court to hear and decide a case. When a court is said to have jurisdiction, it means that the court is the proper forum to decide the legal controversy in question. Often, legal professionals use the term jurisdiction to mean the court’s area of authority in geographic terms. For instance, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a federal appeals court that has jurisdiction over federal cases that arise in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan. The Sixth Circuit would not have jurisdiction over a federal case that arose in Illinois. That would be a decision within the control of the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
What types of jurisdiction does the U.S. Supreme Court have?
The U.S. Supreme Court has both original jurisdiction and appellate jurisdiction. Original jurisdiction means that a case originates in that particular court. The U.S. Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in lawsuits between different states, some cases in which a state is a party, and cases involving foreign diplomats.
Appellate jurisdiction means that a higher court has the power to review judgments by a lower court. In other words, the losing party in a case can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the high court to take the case. The U.S. Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over all decisions of the federal courts of appeals, decisions by the highest state courts (usually called state supreme courts) that involve a federal question (constitutional law), and decisions by special panels of three judges in federal district courts.
What is an example of the Court’s original jurisdiction?
The U.S. Supreme Court exercised its original jurisdiction to settle a border dispute between the states of Virginia and Tennessee in Virginia v. Tennessee (1893).
Robert Bork is one of twelve men to be formally nominated as a Supreme Court justice, only to be rejected by the Senate. Bork was rejected in 1987 after President Ronald Reagan nominated him. Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
APPOINTMENT, CONFIRMATION, AND QUALIFICATIONS
How are federal judges appointed to the federal bench?
Article II, Section 2, provides that the president of the United States shall have the power to nominate “Judges of the Supreme Court.” That same part of the Constitution also provides that the president shall have the power to nominate “all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law.” This means that the president has the power to nominate all federal judges.
The Constitution also provides that the U.S. Senate shall provide “Advice and Consent.” This means that the president’s judicial nominees must be confirmed by the Senate.
What is the confirmation process?
After the president nominates a candidate to the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Senate either confirms or denies the nominee. The Senate Judiciary Committee gathers extensive information about the nominee, holds hearings, and eventually votes on whether to move the candidate on for a full Senate vote. The confirmation process can be quite difficult and lengthy depending on how controversial the candidate is deemed to be by Congress, their constituents, and interested public interest groups. It only takes a majority vote for a candidate to win confirmation. However, twenty-six nominations by presidents have not been successful. The Senate rejected twelve appointments to the Court. Those twelve, and the Senate’s rejection vote tally, were:
Prior Judicial Experience of the Current Justices
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, 2003–5
Justice Samuel Alito Jr.: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 1990–2005
Justice Stephen Breyer: U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, 1980–94 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 1980–93
Justice Anthony Kennedy: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1975–87 Justice Antonin Scalia: U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 1982–86 Justice David Souter: Superior Court of New Hampshire, 1978–83; Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 1983–90; U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit,
