AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM
Federal courts-
-900-1000 district court (trial) judges
-150 court of appeals judges (appeal)
-divided into regional- circuit- courts (11 of them + 1 for DC)
State courts
-every state has an autonomous legal system
-they determine their own system, most of which are pretty similar to federal courts

Federal courts can only rule on federal issues
1- violation of federal law
2- violation of constitution
3- violation of a treaty
4- other random shit that doesnt really matter
-can also rule on 'diversity of citizenship' cases
-cases where citizens of one state suing citizens of another state can sue through federal rather than state court
-basically, federal courts arbitrate between statess
-this basically clogs the federal courts with whole globs of stupid 'diversity' cases
~2/3 of cases that reach the supreme court every year are from federal courts of appeal
-other 1/3 come from state courts with a 'federal question'
-if it's coming from a state, the case must come from the state's highest court (this is NOT NECESSARILY the state supreme court)
-rather, its the highest court in each state that could make a decision
-many states have civil/criminal statues that CANNOT be appealed past a certain level in state court
-when you have 'exhausted your remedies' (appeals), then you can go to the supreme court
-to get your case reviewed, you file a writ of certiorari
-basically all of those are denied, because this is discretionary
-in a tiny number of cases, the supreme court is required to hear the case (voting rights, redistricting issues)

Federal court system isn't established in the constitution, because the small states were wary of the power of big state-dominated courts
-they essentially punted the issue to the congress
-1st thing congress did- judiciary act of 1789, established the court system (not as we have it today, but at least in part)
-congress established district courts in each state as well (one or more in each state)
-originally, they also established circuit courts composed of district judges and Supreme Court Judges
-this was basically because the supreme court didnt really have too much to do in those days
-wasnt really until 1891 until the present form and structure of the court system came into existance

congress didn't want to let the supreme court decide important reconstruction cases after the civil war, passed legislation to do so
-basically, it was a 'court curbing' issue
-people essentially believe that this won't work today, you can't remove from a person all avenues of appeal on constitutional question
-this was almost put to the test during hamdan v rumsfeld, but the SC essentially ignored that question and decided the actual case

smaller courts which arent really important, but you shoudl know anyways
-tax court, court of military affairs, veterans court, court of appeals for the federal circuit (includes customs and patent appeals)

appelate vs. original jurisdiction- next week? next time? whatever