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Welcome to our podcast. This podcast is brought to you by the Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers, DBTAC, which is a part of a network of ten centers funded through NIDRR that offer technical assistance and training regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act and other disability related laws.

Today’s podcast is the third of a three part legal series. We have covered the U.S. government, the law, and today’s podcast is called “The Federal Court System”. The presenter is me, Jacquie Brennan. I am an attorney who works for the DBTAC Southwest ADA Center.

The purpose of this legal series is to provide a framework for you of how our government, law and legal system all work together so that when we get to describing other laws you will have a foundation to understand the environment in which the ADA functions and thrives.

So, the federal court system. Our court system in the United States didn’t just happen by accident. Article Three of the U.S. Constitution says that the judicial authority of the federal government will be invested in one Supreme Court and it authorizes Congress to create what it calls “inferior” federal courts in the federal court system. Of course they’re using the word “inferior” to mean beneath the Supreme Court and they’re not suggesting that Congress should create some sort of below average system, whatever your personal opinion of the federal court system might be.

So Congress created special federal courts and United States District Courts and United States Courts of Appeal. Most federal judges are appointed for life by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The only exceptions to the “appointed for life” rule are federal bankruptcy court judges whose terms are fourteen years and U.S. Magistrate judges who are appointed for eight years.

Now some of you may not know what a Magistrate judge is. Magistrate judges have duties that fall into four categories: conducting most of the initial proceedings in criminal cases, trying certain criminal misdemeanor cases, trying civil cases with the consent of the parties, and conducting many different other proceedings that are referred to them by the District Court judges.

Okay, so let’s go back now and look at each kind of federal court that was established by Congress. There are Special Federal Courts and these are courts of limited jurisdiction which means these courts can only hear certain kinds of cases. For example, U.S. Tax Courts hear cases that involve tax laws. U.S. Courts of Federal Claims hear only cases brought against the United States. U.S. Courts of International Trade hear cases that involve with tariffs and international commercial disputes. U.S. Bankruptcy Courts hear cases that involve, say it with me, federal bankruptcy laws.

U.S. District Courts are the trial courts of the federal court system. They are considered to be courts of general jurisdiction meaning that they can hear all kinds of federal cases other than those that are heard in the Special Federal Courts that we just talked about. Each state and the District of Columbia have at least one Federal District Court and the greater the population of an area, the more Federal District Courts that area will have. The geographical area that each court serves is called a District. Right now, in the United States, there are ninety-six Federal District Courts. Most federal cases start in a Federal District Court. These are trial courts. A lawsuit is filed in federal court and then the trial is usually in a U.S. District Court.

Now when someone is unhappy with the outcome in a U.S. District Court, and inevitably one side is unhappy, and that side believes the court made an error then that person might want to appeal. If they do, in the federal court system, it will be to a U.S. Court of Appeals.

I just want to make sure you understand that I’m talking only about the federal court system here. There’s another court system in every state called the State Court System and many municipalities have Municipal Courts as well. So there are lots of different court systems, but since the state court systems can be different I’m only going to be talking about federal courts here.

So, as I said, if there is an appeal from the U.S. District Court, it goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals. These are also sometimes called Circuit Courts. “Circuit” in this case just means the geographical area that the court serves. There are thirteen Circuits in the federal court system. Eleven of them are called by their number, like the First Circuit Courts of Appeals, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, you get the idea. Then there’s the Twelfth Circuit which is located in Washington, D.C. and it’s called the District of Columbia Circuit. Then there’s the Thirteenth Circuit which was established by Congress in 1982. It has special jurisdiction for appeals from the Court of Federal Claims, the Patent and Trademark Office, and the Court of International Trade. So if you’re wondering which Circuit your state is in, you can find out by going to uscourts.gov.

The Circuit Courts hear appeals from the District Courts and from the Special Courts in administrative agencies that are located in their Circuits. Remember that the Circuit Courts of Appeals are... wait for it... appellate courts. So that means that trials don’t happen there. In appeals, there’s no evidence introduced and there’s no testimony. In fact, most of the time, the people in the case are not there, the parties themselves, just the attorneys are there. The attorneys submit briefs to the Court and then they have what are called oral arguments which basically means that the attorneys try to convince the judges that their side is the right side and that some error was or was not committed by the lower court.

Usually the cases at the Circuit level are just heard by three judges which are called panels. After the decision of the panel, the losing party can request what is called an en banc hearing. It’s spelled “en banc” and it’s pronounced “unbunk”. That means the hearing would be before the entire bench of judges that sit on that Court.

Of course, the Circuit Court isn’t necessarily the end of the line for the appellate process. Circuit Courts are actually Courts of Intermediate Appeal, meaning that there is a court that is higher, that is, shall we say, Supreme. That’s right, it’s the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court is the highest court. It’s located in Washington, D.C. and if you are ever in Washington, D.C. when the Supreme Court is in session I highly recommend that you go watch. The building is huge and it’s very imposing, but when you get inside, the courtroom itself is surprisingly small and intimate.

The Court has a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices, so nine in all. They are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. They are appointed, like most federal judges, for life. New Justices are nominated only when vacancies occur. So quick, can you name the Supreme Court Justices? Go! (pause) Did you get all nine of them? Well, if you can’t get all nine of them or you just want to know more about the Court itself, check out supremecourtus.gov.

Now, to get a case heard by the Supreme Court is a big deal. People always say, “I’m going to take that to the Supreme Court!” and most of the time they couldn’t. They’ll be talking about a traffic ticket or something they’ll want to go to the Supreme Court with, but most of the time that isn’t going to happen. In fact, they get, at the Supreme Court, around eight thousand petitions each year. These petitions are called Petitions for Certiorari. They are filed every year, about eight thousand of them, but only between a hundred and fifty and two hundred cases are chosen to be heard. When they choose it to be heard, they issue a Writ of Certiorari for that case. So a lot of petitions, but only a few are heard by the Supreme Court each year.

The Supreme Court hears appeals from the Circuit Courts, of course, and also sometimes from Federal District Courts, Special Federal Courts, and the highest State Courts. Just like Circuit Courts, the Supreme Court doesn’t hear evidence or testimony. They just hear the oral arguments by the attorneys after briefs are filed. So then the Supreme Court votes to make its decision. It doesn’t vote right then and there. It usually take months for the decision to come out. Each Justice gets one vote on the Supreme Court and the decision does not have to be unanimous as in some jury trials. Lots of Supreme Court decisions are 5:4 decisions. One Justice will usually write the majority opinion. If a Justice disagrees with the majority, that Justice may write a dissenting opinion explaining the reasoning for the disagreement.

Before we wrap up this look at the federal court system, I want to cover two important concepts: jurisdiction and standing. I’ve mentioned jurisdiction a couple of times in this discussion and have tried briefly to explain what it is. Jurisdiction is just the power of a court to hear or act on certain kinds of cases. There is no court that can absolutely hear every single kind of case. All courts have jurisdiction that is limited in some way, even courts of general jurisdiction. The United States Constitution, in Article Three Section Two, establishes the jurisdiction of federal courts.

Federal courts can hear two broad categories of cases: federal questions and diversity of citizenship. Federal questions are those cases that deal with constitutional issues, treaties or federal statutes or regulations. All of these can be brought in federal court without regard to the amount of money that is controversy.

Diversity of citizenship means cases between citizens of two different states or between a citizen of a state and a citizen of a foreign country, but most often it’s just between two different states in the United States. The reason for letting federal courts hear these diversity cases is to avoid state court bias against citizens of another state or country. The federal court has to apply the appropriate state’s law and the amount of money in controversy must be more than ,000. If this requirement isn’t met, then the case has to be filed in state court.

Federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction, meaning they are the only courts to hear these cases, so they have exclusive jurisdiction over cases involving federal crimes, antitrust, bankruptcy, patent and copyright cases, suits against the United States and most admiralty cases. These cases cannot be brought in state court.

Federal and state courts have concurrent jurisdiction, meaning the case can be filed in either court, over cases involving diversity of citizenship and federal questions that are not included in the list I just went over where federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. If a plaintiff brings a case involving concurrent jurisdiction in state court, the defendant can take the case to federal court. It’s called removing the case to federal court. If the case is not within the jurisdiction of the federal court, meaning the federal court does not have the power to hear that kind of case, then it must be brought in the correct state court.

The last subject is standing, standing to sue. To file a case, a plaintiff must have standing to sue. That means the plaintiff must have a stake in the outcome of the case. Here’s an example. Let’s say that Linda is injured by a hazard on Wendy’s property and there is no question that Wendy is at fault, but Linda likes Wendy and does not want to sue her. Linda’s friend, Laurie, really does want to sue Wendy on behalf of Linda, but Laurie can’t do that because Laurie does not have standing to sue because she would not be impacted by the outcome of the case, so she cannot bring the lawsuit, not even on Linda’s behalf.

The issue of standing often comes up in ADA Title Three cases especially. A person cannot file suit under Title Three of the ADA alleging that a business was not accessible unless that person actually attempted to access the business and intends to access it again in the future. A person must have standing in order to sue.

I really hope that this legal series has given you a framework for how the government and the law and the court system all form a foundation upon which, and within which, the Americans with Disabilities Act and other disability laws are created and function. It’s complicated and maybe this series has generated more question than it answered.

If you have questions about disability law, please call the Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center at 1-800-949-4232 or visit our website at dbtac.vcu.edu.

Have a dazzling day!





The Southwest and Rocky Mountain ADA Centers are part of a program of Independent Living Research Utilization at TIRR - Memorial Hermann in Houston, Texas, and is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. If you have questions about disability law or would like to request materials or training, please call 1-800-949-4232. This podcast is protected by the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works 2.5 License. For more information and transcripts, visit www.ada-podcast.com.