quiz 7 pols 150

the authority of a court to be the first to hear a case

the authority of a court to hear a case on appeal after it has been argued in and decided by a lower federal or state court

the 1803 case in which chief justice john marshall established the power of judicial review

the power of the supreme court established in Marbury v. Madison to overturn acts of the president, congress, and the states if those acts violate the constitution. this power makes the supreme court the final interpreter of the constitution

the power of the supreme court to intrepret or reinterpret a federal or state law

the point of original entry in the legal system, with a single judge and at times a jury deciding matters of both fact and law in a case

the court that reviews an appeal of the trial court proceedings, often with a multi-judge panel and without a jury; it considers only matters of law

proceedings in which all of the appeals judges in a particular circuit serve as a tribunal

cases in which decisions are made regarding whether to punish individuals accused of violating the state or federal criminal code

agreements in which the state presses for either a reduced set of charges or a reduced sentence in return for a guilty plea

noncriminal cases in which courts resolve disputes among indviduals and parties to the case over finances, property, or personal well-being

a single civil case in which the plaintiff represents the whole class of individuals similary situated, and the court's results apply to this entire classaa pro

courts mentioned in article III of thee constitution whose judges have life tenure

the trial courts serving as the original point of entry for almost all federal cases

the middle appeals level of judicial review beyond the district courts; in 2019, it consisted of 179 judges in 13 courts, 12 of which are geographically based

courts designed to provide technical expertise on specific subjects based on article I of the constitution

a senatorial tradition by which the senators from the state in which a federal courts appointee resides have an opporunity to send their favorable or unfavorable ranking of the nominee to the white house (or they can choose not to send back the slip at all)

a procedure in which a president submits the names of judicial nominees to senators from the same political party who are also from the nominee's home state for their approval prior to formal nomination

the supreme court's unsigned emergency rulings that are not formally argued and are issued without full opinion, separately from its regular appellate docket

a latin term meaning "to be made more certain"; this writ enables the court to accept cases for review only if there are "special and important reasons therefore."

a means of determining which cases the supreme court will hear; at least four justices must vote to hear a case and grant the petition for a writ of certiorari for the case to be put on the court's docket

written arguments to the court outlining not only the facts and legal and constitutional issues in a court case but also answering all anticipated arguments of the opposing side

the third-ranking official in the justice department, appointed by the president and charged with representing the US government before the supreme court

legal briefs that enable groups or individuals, including the national government, who are not parties to the litigation but have an interest in it, to attempt to influence the outcome of the case; literally, "friend of the court" briefs

a written version of the decision of a court

a decision of the supreme court that represents the agreed-on compromise judgment of all justices in majority

less than a majority vote on an opinion of the court; does not have the binding legal force of a majority opinion

a written opinion of a justice who agrees with the majority decision of the court but differs on the reasoning

a written opinion of a justice who disagrees with the holding of the court

a doctrine meaning "let the decision stand," or that judges deciding a case should adhere if at all possible to previously decided cases similar to the one under consideration

previously decided court cases on an issue similar to the one being considered

a historically based, judicial decision-making theory by the people at the same time that it was written, to rule in a modern case

an etymologically based, judicial decision-making theory by which a justice or judge stricly interprets the meaning of a founding document or a law using the dictionary defintions of those words, often basing that determination on the dictionaries used in the historical time that the words were written

an approach in which justices see themselves as appointed rather than elected officials, who should defer to the legislature and uphold a law or political action if at all possible

an approach in which justices create new policy and decide issues, to the point, some critics charge, of writing their personal values into law

an action in which the government seeks to ban the publication of controversial material by the press before it is published; censorship

laws that would punish soemone for an action after it has taken place. for example, laws such as those banning libel and obscenity because they are harmful to reputations or public sensibilities punish writers, editors, and publishers after an item appears in print

speech that is untruthful, malicious, or damaging to a person's reputation or good name and thus not protected by the free speech clause of the first amendment

published material that damages a person's reputation or good name in an truthful and malicious way. libelous material is not protected by the first amendment

rule whereby evidence gathered by illegal means, and any other evidence gathered as a result, cannot be used in later trials

a reasonable belief that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed. searches also require a belief that evidence of that crime may be located in a particular place. police must establish this to a judge to secure a search warrant or retroactively justify a search that has already taken place

a warning that must be recited by police officers to a suspect before questioning: "you have the right to remain silent; anything you say can and will be used against you. you have the right to ann attorney. if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. do you understand these rights and are you willing to speak with us? established in miranda v. arizona, 1966

the supreme court's agenda of cases to consider

the individual freedoms and rights guaranteed to every citizen in the bill of rights and the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment, including freedom of speech and religion

the constitutionally guaranteed rights that the government may not arbitrarily remove. among these rights are the right to vote and equal protection under the law

the varying level of intensity by which the supreme court considers cases by which it protects civil liberties claims while also deferring to the legislature in cases with economic claims

the process whereby the supreme court has found that bill of rights protections apply to the states

an approach in which the states would be bound only by the dictates of due process contained in the fourteenth amendment

an approach arguing that the protections in the bill of rights were so fundamental that all of them should be applied to the states by aborbing them into the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment

a free speech test allowing states to regulate only speech that has an immediate connection to an action the states are permitted to regulate

trying a defendant twice for the same crime; banned by the fifth amendment

an incorporation standard in which some portions of the bill of rights, but not all, were made part of the fourteenth amendment's due process clause, and thus guaranteed against invasion by the states

the supreme court's current rule for applying the bill of rights to sttaes. states are now bound by most, but not all, of the first eight amendments plus some unenumerated rights, such as privacy, that have been created by the court but are not part of the text of the bill of rights

a test from the 1971 supreme court case lemon v. kurtzman for determining the permissible level state aid for church agencies by measuring its purpose on three counts: is it nonreligious in nature? does it eithr advance or inhibit religion? does it produce excessive entanglement of church and state?

rule denying any constitutional right to exemption on free excercise grounds from laws dealing with nonreligious matters

a free-excercise-of-religion test in which the state was asked to find another way, perhaps through exemptions, to enforce its regulations while protecting all other religions

speech or symbolic actions intended to inflict emotional distress, to defame, or to intimidate people

some actions, such as burning the american glag, that take the place of speech because they communicate a message

certain expressions so volatile that they are deemed to incite injury and are therefore not protected under the first amendment