District, Circuit, Supreme: How does the federal court system work?

Civics 101

NHPR

Society & Culture, Government, History

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The federal judiciary system has three steps: district court, circuit court, and the Supreme Court, and despite what you see on screen, many cases do not end with that first courtroom verdict. This is how the federal judiciary system works, what makes a case worthy of consideration by the Supreme Court, and what happens when case lands in front of SCOTUS. We talked with Erin Corcoran, Executive Director for the Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies, and Behzad Mirhashem, Assistant Federal Public Defender in New Hampshire and professor of law at UNH Law. Listen to our breakdown of Tinker v Des Moines in IRL1: Free Speech in Schools. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I gotta be honest, Nick, we've been doing this show for years now, and I still don't
0:08.9	entirely grasp the court system.
0:12.5	Can I say that on this show?
0:13.5	You can say that.
0:14.5	Yeah, because we've got district courts, right?
0:17.3	Circuit courts, courts of appeals.
0:19.9	The Supreme Court, the Supreme Court, I pretty much have, but like everything else, it's
0:24.2	a tangled web.
0:25.5	Well, I hope we can untangle that web today, Hannah.
0:29.7	And actually, I think it might be more appropriate to think of it as a ladder instead of a web,
0:34.4	because though television and movies make it seem like cases end with the judge announcing
0:39.7	a verdict, for many cases, that is just the first step on the ladder.
0:47.8	You're listening to Civics 101, I'm Nick Capitice.
0:50.0	I'm Hannah McCarty.
0:51.0	And today we're talking about the federal judiciary system, and how a case can go from that first
0:56.5	trial all the way up to the Supreme Court.
0:59.9	Okay, Nick, I just want to make sure I understand the difference between the federal
1:08.7	judiciary system and the state judiciary system, because most people, if they're going to
1:14.1	be dealing with the legal system, say a divorce or a contract dispute or even like a traffic
1:21.0	violation, that is all happening in state court.
1:23.7	Yes, and to complicate it, every state has completely different laws.
1:28.8	Federal laws are for the country as a whole.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NHPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NHPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.