Because the United States was not founded as a single nation but began as a loosely united group of 13 separate colonies, each of which declared independence from the British Crown, the American legal system is divided between federal and state law and has more layers than those in many other nations. The struggle between the states and the fledgling national government over power and legal jurisdiction was intense, as the country forged a system of federal government, and there still are conflicts: witness the previously mentioned debate over states’ rights. But when the Constitution was drafted and finally ratified, it included a "supremacy clause" in Article VI that stated, "This Constitution...shall be the supreme Law of the Land...." This established the principle that "[w]here the federal Constitution speaks, no state may contradict it" (Outline, 2004, pp. 6-8).
Each branch of government—the executive, the legislative, and the judicial—plays a role in the legal system and each has its own powers, in a system of checks and balances that acts as a safeguard against any one branch having too much power.
The judicial system in the United States consists of the federal court system and the state court systems.
Click here to see a chart comparing the powers and functions of federal and state courts.
The federal court system
The federal judiciary hears cases involving questions of federal law and disputes between citizens of different states. One of the early, and most important, federal cases was Marbury v. Madison in 1803, wherein the Supreme Court interpreted its powers delegated by the Constitution as including the authority to decide whether a statute violated the Constitution and declare that statute invalid (Bureau, p. 9). Courts on the federal level include the 94 U.S. District Courts, the 13 U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. Other federal courts include the Article III courts, the U.S. Court of Claims, which hears cases against the government, and the U.S. Court of International Trade; and special courts created by Congress: magistrate judges, bankruptcy courts, the U.S. Military Court of Appeals, the U.S. Tax Court, and the U.S. Court of Veterans' Appeals (Understanding, n.d., pars. 1-12).
The Supreme Court
"The United States Supreme Court consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight associate justices. At its discretion, and within certain guidelines established by Congress, the Supreme Court each year hears a limited number of the cases it is asked to decide. Those cases may begin in the federal or state courts, and they usually involve important questions about the Constitution or federal law" (Supreme Court, n.d., par. 1).
