Terms

1
Terms

• Module IV
• Article III
• Chapter IV

2
Terms Article III

• Activist Judges looking to the general
  principals of the Constitution.
• Advisory Opinions Nonbinding court decisions
  which, by long-standing practice, U.S. courts
  will not issue.
• Amicus Curiae Briefs Friend of the court
  briefs filed by groups or individuals who are not
  party to a suit but who want to call their legal
  views to the courts attention.

3
Terms Article III

• Appellate Jurisdiction Refers to cases heard on
  appeal, usually over issues of law rather than
  fact.
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Overturned
  the doctrine of separate but equal that had
  been established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• Chief Justice The head of the U.S. Supreme
  Court. Regarded as primus inter pares, or first
  among equals, the chief is designated by the
  Constitution to preside over trials of
  impeachment of the president in the Senate

4
Terms Article III

• Circuit Courts of Appeal Thirteen courts in the
  federal system that are midway between the
  District Courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Such
  circuit courts deal mostly with cases on appeal.
• Class Action Suit Brought on part of all
  similarly situated.
• Concurring Opinion A judicial decision in which
  one or more justices agree with the decision but
  write separately to give their own explanations
  and/or express their reservations.

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Terms Article III

• District Courts The lowest rung of the U.S.
  federal court system, of which there are
  currently 94. Such courts are largely courts of
  original jurisdiction, hearing cases in the first
  instance.
• Dual Court System One national and 50 state
  systems
• Grand Jury A body of citizens convened to
  determine whether there is sufficient evidence to
  bring an individual to trial

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Terms Article III

• Judicial Review The power American courts
  exercise of reviewing executive and
  administrative actions, as well as state and
  federal laws, which come before them in the
  course of judicial decision-making, and deciding
  whether or not they are constitutional.
• Marbury v. Madison (1803) In turning away a
  request by an individual who had been appointed
  as a justice of the peace but had never received
  his commission, the Court ruled that a section of
  the Judiciary Act of 1789 that seemed to grant
  the Court original jurisdiction was
  unconstitutional and therefore void, therefore
  asserting the Courts power of judicial review.
• Missouri Plan Judges appointed by the governor
  and then approved by voters on their record.

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Terms Article III

• Petit Jury A trial jury, typically consisting of
  twelve members of the community, which decides on
  a defendants guilt or innocence and, in some
  cases, on an appropriate penalty.
• Sovereign Immunity The doctrine, somewhat
  affirmed by the Eleventh Amendment, that
  prohibits governments, as sovereign entities,
  from being sued without their consent.
• Strict Constructionist Judge following the
  exact words of the Constitution.

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Terms Article III

• Supreme Court The highest court in the federal
  system and the only court mentioned by name in
  the U.S. Constitution. Under current law, the
  Court has nine members, eight associate justices
  and a chief.
• Suspect Classes Groups, like racial minorities
  and aliens, to whom the Court has extended extra
  judicial scrutiny because of past use of such
  classifications in a discriminatory fashion.

9
Cases

• Lochner v. New York (1905) A case, often cited
  as the epitome of the kind of laissez-faire
  jurisprudence typical of the Court before 1937,
  in which the Court struck down a New York law
  designed to regulate the working hours of bakers.
• Marbury v. Madison (1803) In turning away a
  request by an individual who had been appointed
  as a justice of the peace but had never received
  his commission, the Court ruled that a section of
  the Judiciary Act of 1789 that seemed to grant
  the Court original jurisdiction was
  unconstitutional and therefore void, therefore
  asserting the Courts power of judicial review.

10
Cases

• United States v. Carolene Products Company
  (1939) The occasion for Justice Harlan Fiske
  Stones famous footnote number four where he
  suggested that certain subjects within the
  Constitutionmost notably the first ten
  amendments, provisions providing for keeping the
  democratic processes open, and those involving
  the rights of minoritieswould be subject to more
  exacting judicial scrutiny than others.

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Cases

• United States v. Lopez (1995) Overturned a
  federal law prohibiting guns near school grounds
  on the basis that such power was not directly
  related to congressional powers under the
  commerce clause.
• West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937) In upholding
  a Washington State minimum wage law, the Court
  overturned an earlier decision in Adkins v.
  Childrens Hospital (1923) and instituted the
  switch in time that saved nine, by deflecting
  criticism that had led to Franklin D. Roosevelts
  court-packing plan. From this case forward, the
  Court has generally given less attention to
  governmental regulations of economic matters than
  to other issues.