The full breakdown of case types was as follows: [2]. A court whose subject matter is limited to certain types of cases e. Ballotpedia features , encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion.
Share this page Follow Ballotpedia. What's on your ballot? Jump to: navigation , search. Categories : Terms and definitions Judicial terms and definitions. Voter information What's on my ballot? They may also be removed by impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate. Throughout history, fifteen federal judges have been impeached due to alleged wrongdoing. One exception to the lifetime appointment is for magistrate judges, which are selected by district judges and serve a specified term.
The district courts are the general trial courts of the federal court system. Each district court has at least one United States District Judge, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for a life term.
District courts handle trials within the federal court system — both civil and criminal. The districts are the same as those for the U.
Attorneys, and the U. Attorney is the primary prosecutor for the federal government in his or her respective area. There are over district court judges nationwide.
Some tasks of the district court are given to federal magistrate judges. Magistrates are appointed by the district court by a majority vote of the judges and serve for a term of eight years if full-time and four years if part-time, but they can be reappointed after completion of their term. In criminal matters, magistrate judges may oversee certain cases, issue search warrants and arrest warrants, conduct initial hearings, set bail, decide certain motions such as a motion to suppress evidence , and other similar actions.
In civil cases, magistrates often handle a variety of issues such as pre-trial motions and discovery. Federal trial courts have also been established for a few subject-specific areas. Each federal district also has a bankruptcy court for those proceedings. Once the federal district court has decided a case, the case can be appealed to a United States court of appeal.
There are twelve federal circuits that divide the country into different regions. Cases from the district courts of those states are appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. Additionally, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has a nationwide jurisdiction over very specific issues such as patents.
However, the Supreme Court still has the discretion regarding whether or it will hear these cases. The original jurisdiction of the Court is laid out by statute in 28 U. Section a provides that with one type of dispute disputes between states , the Court's jurisdiction is not only "original," it is exclusive.
In other words, if the parties cannot settle the matter, no other court but the Supreme Court has authority, under the Constitution, to take jurisdiction. Rule 17 of the Supreme Court Rules governs actions based on the Court's original jurisdiction.
Relatively few original jurisdiction cases come to the Court. In recent times there have been one or two a year. The Court's practice in these cases is to appoint a "Master" to hear the evidence, determine facts, and recommend a decision.
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