Discussion w/Grossman- 12:30 at 304 Krieger


-most of legal business of america is charged, tried, and decided in state courts
-however, federal courts have become far more important in criminal justice (not true 40 years ago)
-more kinds of behavior have become federal crimes
-traditionally, "ordinary crimes" (robbery, rape, homicide), are state offenses
-however, 'unordinary crimes' can be punished under federal law (bank robbery, drug trafficking, etc) as well as under state law
-you can be tried for a crime twice (violating double jeopardy) if you're tried in a different jursidiction
-this allows both the federal and state govt to take their swings at you
-while this is possible, it's basically been govt policy since 1959 NOT to try people twice

"marshall the courthouse mouse" is an amazing book

The constitutional stipulation that justices serve during good behavior means that congress COULD have defined good behavior, but hasn't
-basically 'judicial independence' is extremely important
-there's no law now about judicial disability or a judicial commission that can declare justices incapable of discharging their duties
-most states have these, federal courts have this, supreme court does not
-supreme court's recusal policy is not enforceable

out of 9500 cases on the docket, only about 75 make it to 'full consideration'
-original jurisdiction is defined in article III of the constitution
-john marshall said that congress cannot add to the original jurisdiction of the court
-there arent too many original jurisdiction cases (in the entire history, ~160 cases decided this way)
-in original jurisdiction cases, the court appoints a 'special master' to actually determine the facts of the case
-he conducts hearings, etc, and files a report with the supreme court
-after the report is filed, oral arguments are held
-even though original cases seem to be obligatory, the court treats them as discretionary
-the more important type of jurisdiction is appellate jurisdiction
-vast majority of the cases are this type
-appellate jurisdiction cases must be of a certain type, not limited to ONLY appeals from federal courts, but can decide state courts as well
-up until the late 19th century both types were pretty much obligatory- they were all on the docket if you met the jurisdiction requirements
-during the industrial revolution, the number of cases exploded
-congress slowly began the process of giving the court discretionary jurisdiction
-basically created the 'writ of certiorary'
-happened essentially in in "the judge's bill of 1925"
-william howard taft basically promoted and lobbied for this act, gave the supreme court ~90% discretionary jurisdiction
-the other 10% are 'writs of appeal'
-now, basically 99% of supreme court cases come by writ of certiorari
-only other types of cases allowed are voting rights cases
-when a writ of ceritorari is granted, no reason is ever given, and therefore no precedent is ever established through the denial