Chapter 9 The Judiciary Essentials of American Government Article推荐.pdf

Chapter 9 The Judiciary Essentials of American Government The Constitution and the National Judiciary Article III of the Constitution establishes: • a Supreme Court in which the judicial power of the United States is vested • life tenure or good behavior for judges • judges receive compensation that cannot be diminished during their service • such inferior courts as Congress may choose to establish • the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court The intent of Article III was to remedy the failings of the Articles of Confederation that left judiciary matters to the states and to avoid the experience of the colonial era of all powerful British courts that trampled on the rights of citizens. As with the rest of the Constitution, Article III was the result of compromise. There were many debates at the Constitutional Convention and between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists during the Ratification Debates about the document. Many issues discussed did not find their way into the Constitution. The Judiciary Act of 1789 and the Creation of the Federal Judicial System Congress established inferior courts through the Judiciary Act of 1789. This Act established the federal judiciary in a three-tiered structure. The main courts of fact in the federal system are District Courts, next the Circuit Courts of Appeals, and finally the Supreme Court. The Judiciary Act also set the number of justices for the Supreme Court at 6 (the number has varied over the years from five to ten, since it is not determined in the Constitution, and was set at 9 by the Judiciary Act of 1869). At first, the Supreme Court was not a high status post. Justices lef