Exam 2: The Court Systems

With the exception of the U.S. Supreme Court, Congress has the power to abolish and create federal courts.

Jurisdiction means the "power to speak of the law" by a court.

Unlike federal judges, most state judges:

Both state and federal court systems have courts of ____, where the decisions of a lower court case can be taken for review.

The U.S. Constitution provides that the judicial power (the court system) is:

Magistrates may not try cases unless:

Fact Pattern 2-1 Yoshi, a Japanese citizen working in Atlanta for his Tokyo firm, decided to rent an airplane and fly himself to the Annual Catfish and Zydeco festival in Thibodaux, Louisiana. He rented a small plane to fly there. Over Alabama, thunderstorms formed. Because Yoshi was not trained to fly by instruments, he decided to land at the next airport. As he searched for a runway, Yoshi heard a loud clank followed by silence as the engine died. He tried to land in a field but crashed. While recovering in a rehabilitation center in California, Yoshi filed suit there against the Atlanta Airport and the owners of the airplane, alleging that they were negligent in their maintenance. -Refer to Fact Pattern 2-1. The Atlanta airport is a corporation. California has a long-arm statute. How might Yoshi use the statute to exercise jurisdiction over the airport?

Federal courts have jurisdiction over matters such as divorce if the parties to the case now live in separate states.

Fact Pattern 2-1 Yoshi, a Japanese citizen working in Atlanta for his Tokyo firm, decided to rent an airplane and fly himself to the Annual Catfish and Zydeco festival in Thibodaux, Louisiana. He rented a small plane to fly there. Over Alabama, thunderstorms formed. Because Yoshi was not trained to fly by instruments, he decided to land at the next airport. As he searched for a runway, Yoshi heard a loud clank followed by silence as the engine died. He tried to land in a field but crashed. While recovering in a rehabilitation center in California, Yoshi filed suit there against the Atlanta Airport and the owners of the airplane, alleging that they were negligent in their maintenance. -Refer to Fact Pattern 2-1. If Yoshi's case were removed to federal court, the federal court would have to apply conflict-of-law rules to determine what law to apply to the dispute.

The doctrine of judicial immunity protects judges' ability to:

A court's power over the person of the defendant is referred to as:

Federal courts have the judicial power to hear most cases involving:

A decision of a state's highest court may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Statutes passed by Congress may limit which types of jurisdiction?

The plaintiff notifies the defendant of a legal action against him by a conflict-of law declaration.

Many aspects of the civil litigation process between two parties in the federal court system, including pleadings, discovery, trial procedures, and motions, are governed by:

The majority of litigation occurs in the:

The Supreme Court was created:

If the U.S. Supreme Court accepts a case on appeal it:

In Erie v. Tompkins, where Tompkins was hit by a New York train in Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court held that federal common law, as first announced in Swift v. Tyson, had to be applied to cases where there was diversity of citizenship, forcing the case into federal court.