2C Assignments

2C: The Judicial Branch Cloze Notes

Federal Courts

•       Federal Courts: Article III “Exercise the judicial power of the United States”

•        Federal courts hear cases pertaining with                                                             issues, US waters, if the case involves US officials, a foreign government, a citizen of another country, or one of the fifty states

•       There is the                                                         Court and “                                                        ” Courts

•       Inferior courts are any court beneath the Supreme Court-basically all other courts

Terms to know

•       .                                                               : person who filed the charges

•       .                                                               : person of whom the complaint is about

•       .                                                               : Attorney who represents government in criminal cases

Types of Jurisdiction

•       .                                                               : authority of a court to hear and decide a case

•       Exclusive jurisdiction: cases that can ONLY be heard in                                                                     court

•       Ex.: foreign officials, federal crime, patent/copyright infringement

•       Concurrent jurisdiction: when either a                                    or                                                            court can hear a case

•       Original jurisdiction: court that hears a case                                                        

•       Appellate jurisdiction: court that may                                                     , uphold, or change a ruling from a lower court

Systems of Appeals-Federal level

•       State Court (also called a district court)

•       Has                                                                          over disputes with some connection to a U.S. state

•       Majority of cases are heard here. Case must deal with a violation of a constitutional right

•       Circuit Court (group of state or district courts)

•       Twelve courts with geographic-based appellate jurisdiction, hear appeals from State court (D.C. is its own circuit)

•       Supreme Court: the                                                        federal court in the United States. It has ultimate                                                             jurisdiction over all federal courts and over state court cases involving issues of federal law

The Supreme Court

•       Nine justices, appointed for life

•       Supreme Court receives 8,000 appeals per year-only a few hundred are chosen

•       “Rule of Four”-four justices must agree that case should be reviewed.

The Supreme Court: Please summarize the four steps to the Supreme Court

1.

2.

3.

4.

State Courts

•       .                                                               Law: portion of law that defines public wrongs and provides their punishment

•       .                                               : A severe crime that will result in heavy fines and/or imprisonment, or death

•       .                                                               : small offense that results in a lesser fine or short amount of time in jail

•       .                                               Law: law that relates to human conduct, disputes between private parties, or private parties and government officials not covered by criminal law

•       Most cases are handled in the state court system. In fact, 99 percent of legal disputes in American courts are decided in the separate state court systems. State courts have jurisdiction over virtually all divorce and child custody matters, probate and inheritance issues, real estate, and juvenile matters. In addition, they handle most criminal cases, contract disputes, traffic violations, small claims, and personal injury cases.

MD Court of Special Appeals

•       The                                                                                                                                         is the intermediate appellate court 

•       The Maryland Court of Special Appeals originally could hear only                                                cases.

•       Its jurisdiction has expanded so that it now considers any reviewable judgment, decree, order, or other action of the circuit and orphans’ courts, unless otherwise provided by law.

•       The Court of Special Appeals was created in 1966 in response to the rapidly growing caseload in the Maryland Court of Appeals.

MD Court of Appeals

•       The Court of                                                        of Maryland is the supreme court of the U.S. state of Maryland.

•       The Court of Appeals reviews cases of both major and minor importance. Throughout the year, the Court of Appeals holds hearings on the adoption or amendment of rules of practice and procedure. It also supervises the Attorney Grievance Commission and State Board of Law Examiners in attorney disciplinary and admission matter

END OF ASSIGNMENT

The Court System:

Brown vs. Board of Education

In 1951, a class action suit was filed against the Board of Education of the City of Topeka, Kansas in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. The plaintiffs were thirteen Topeka parents on behalf of their twenty children. 

The suit called for the school district to reverse its policy of racial segregation. Separate elementary schools were operated by the Topeka Board of Education under an 1879 Kansas law, which allowed districts to maintain separate elementary school facilities for black and white students in twelve communities with populations over 15,000. The plaintiffs had been recruited by the leadership of the Topeka NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Notable among the Topeka NAACP leaders were the chairman McKinley Burnett; Charles Scott, one of three serving as legal counsel for the chapter; and Lucinda Todd.

The named plaintiff, Oliver L. Brown, was a parent, a welder in the shops of the Santa Fe Railroad, an assistant pastor at his local church, and an African American. He was convinced to join the lawsuit by Scott, a childhood friend. Brown's daughter Linda, a third grader, had to walk six blocks to her school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary, her segregated school, one mile away, while Sumner Elementary, a white school, was seven blocks from her house. 

As directed by the NAACP leadership, the parents each attempted to enroll their children in the closest neighborhood school in the fall of 1951. They were each refused enrollment and directed to the segregated schools. Linda Brown Thompson later recalled the experience in a 2004 PBS documentary:

“. . . well. like I say, we lived in an integrated neighborhood and I had all of these playmates of different nationalities. And so when I found out that day that I might be able to go to their school, I was just thrilled, you know. And I remember walking over to Sumner school with my dad that day and going up the steps of the school and the school looked so big to a smaller child. And I remember going inside and my dad spoke with someone and then he went into the inner office with the principal and they left me out . . . to sit outside with the secretary. And while he was in the inner office, I could hear voices and hear his voice raised, you know, as the conversation went on. And then he immediately came out of the office, took me by the hand and we walked home from the school. I just couldn't understand what was happening because I was so sure that I was going to go to school with Mona and Guinevere, Wanda, and all of my playmates.” 

The Kansas case, "Oliver Brown et al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas," was named after Oliver Brown as a legal strategy to have a man at the head of the roster. Also, it was felt by lawyers with the National Chapter of the NAACP, that having Mr. Brown at the head of the roster would be better received by the U.S. Supreme Court Justices. The thirteen plaintiffs were: Oliver Brown, Darlene Brown, Lena Carper, Sadie Emmanuel, Marguerite Emerson, Shirley Fleming, Zelma Henderson, Shirley Hodison, Maude Lawton, Alma Lewis, Iona Richardson, and Lucinda Todd. 

The District Court ruled in favor of the Board of Education, citing the U.S. Supreme Court precedent set in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S.537 (1896), which had upheld a state law requiring "separate but equal" segregated facilities for blacks and whites in railway cars. The three-judge District Court panel found that segregation in public education has a detrimental effect upon children who were black, but denied allowing the children to attend Sumner school on the ground that the black and white schools in Topeka were substantially equal with respect to buildings, transportation, curricular, and educational qualifications of teachers. 

Supreme Court review

The case of Brown v. Board of Education was heard before the Supreme Court in 1954. While all but one justice personally rejected segregation, the judges questioned whether the Constitution gave the Court the power to order its (segregation) end. 

Warren convened a meeting of the justices, and presented to them the simple argument that the only reason to sustain segregation was an honest belief in the inferiority of African Americans. Warren further submitted that the Court must overrule Plessy to maintain its legitimacy as an institution of liberty, and it must do so unanimously to avoid massive Southern resistance. He began to build a unanimous opinion.

Although most justices were immediately convinced, Warren spent some time after this famous speech convincing everyone to sign onto the opinion. Justices Robert Jackson and Stanley Reed finally decided to drop their dissent to what was by then an opinion backed by all the others. The final decision was unanimous. 

In a landmark decision, the United States Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the court’s unanimous (9–0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." As a result,  racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This ruling paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement.

On a separate sheet of paper, answer the following questions.

1.      The first “level” of court that Brown vs. Board of Education went to the                                                                                                                 (Name of Court-hint it is a LONG name). This court is called a district or                                  court. After being denied the right to attend Sumner, Brown appealed to the US                                                              .

2.      Why was it important for the Supreme Court to have a unanimous decision?

3.      What kind of jurisdiction did the Supreme Court have over the lower Kansas court?