The Powers of the Courts
In looking at the language of Article III of the U.S. Constitution, it could be persuasively argued that the document gives lower federal courts, once created, the same jurisdiction given the Supreme Court, with the exception of those matters specifically reserved to the nation's highest court.
The exact words indicate that the judicial power of the United States "shall be vested in one Supreme Court and such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish," with their power extending "to all cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution . . . (and) the-Laws of the United States . . ." Does this mean that the inferior federal courts have the same range of authority as the final arbiter of disputes, the U.S. Supreme Court?
While the wording of the Constitution may indicate that, reality has dictated otherwise. The First Congress, in creating the inferior federal courts in 1789, did not endorse that opinion; since then, it has become accepted fact that all federal courts other than the Supreme Court exercise only the jurisdiction granted them by Congress -no more and no less.
Establishing the parameters of that jurisdiction is the domain of Congress, which may explore and impose additions or limitations upon the power of these courts. This element of flexibility, implied from the provisions of Article III of the Constitution, is another example of the document's value in changing times.
"Jurisdiction" refers to the power of a particular court to hear and decide a case. For example, a federal court may hear cases involving federal laws. As we saw in the last article in this series, such a case is usually heard first in a District Court and then a Court of Appeals before being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for a final decision. In those cases, the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court also has the constitutional power to hear certain types of cases without their first being tried in a lower court. For example, the Constitution says that all cases involving ambassadors and other public officials representing a foreign nation, cases where a federal or state law is involved and those cases involving disputes between states are eligible for direct submission to the Supreme Court. In these cases, the Supreme Court is given "original jurisdiction;" that is, the Supreme Court is the court of first recourse.
With the exception of these cases, the Constitution gave all federal courts the judicial authority to hear and decide cases: requiring an interpretation of the Constitution and U.S. laws; resulting from treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States; affecting ambassadors, other public ministers or consuls; regarding admiralty and maritime matters; dealing with controversies to which the United States is a party; involving disagreements between two or more states; differences between a state and citizens of another state; and controversies between citizens of different states, between citizens of the same state claiming land under grants of different states, and between a state or citizens thereof.
Of all these original judicial powers, only one has since been struck down. This resulted from the action of the Supreme Court in accepting jurisdiction of a suit against a state by a citizen of another state in 1793. The case led to such public outcry that Congress submitted the Eleventh Amendment to the states for ratification. Its ratification effectively deleted this original portion of the Constitution, and today a citizen of one state or of a foreign nation cannot bring suit against another state in a federal court.
In addition to defining the judicial power of the federal court system, Article III of the Constitution also mandates that all crimes against the United States -- with the exception of an impeachment trial -- must be tried before a jury. The Supreme Court has defined "crimes" as not only a serious offense against a U.S. law, but also "some classes of misdemeanors, the punishment of which involves or may involve the deprivation of the liberty of the citizen."
In addition to this procedural safeguard, the Constitution requires that all criminal trials must be held in the state in which the crime is committed. If the crime is not committed in any state -- for example, on a ship at sea -- the trial is held at a place designated by Congress.
The Supreme Court itself has defined "judicial power" as "that power vested in courts to enable them to administer justice according to law." The role of our nation's courts in seeing that the laws are interpreted correctly in providing justice to the citizens of the nation remains a key element of our legal heritage.