The Court System: Structure, Pretrial Process, and Trial Rights
The court system domain tests how cases move through state and federal courts and which constitutional rights attach at each stage. Expect questions on jurisdiction, pretrial procedure, and the roles of prosecutors, defense counsel, and juries.
Structure and jurisdiction
- The United States has a dual court system: state courts handle the vast majority of cases; federal courts hear federal crimes and constitutional claims.
- Federal: 94 district courts (trial), 13 courts of appeals (12 regional plus the Federal Circuit), and the Supreme Court, which grants certiorari by the rule of four.
- State: courts of limited jurisdiction (municipal, traffic), general jurisdiction (felony), intermediate appellate courts, and a state supreme court.
- Jurisdiction means subject matter, geographic, and personal authority; venue is the proper place of trial.
Pretrial process
- Arrest or complaint, then initial appearance (charges, bail), then a grand jury indictment (federal, Fifth Amendment) or an information following a preliminary hearing (probable cause), then arraignment and plea, discovery, motions, trial.
- Bail: the Eighth Amendment bars excessive bail; preventive detention was upheld in United States v. Salerno.
- Plea bargaining resolves most cases. Brady requires disclosure of exculpatory evidence; Giglio extends this to impeachment material.
Trial rights and appeals
- The Sixth Amendment guarantees a speedy and public trial, an impartial jury, notice, confrontation, compulsory process, and counsel (Gideon v. Wainwright for felonies; Argersinger when imprisonment is imposed).
- Jury selection: venire, voir dire, challenges for cause and peremptory strikes; Batson bars race-based peremptory strikes.
- The burden is proof beyond a reasonable doubt; double jeopardy bars retrial after acquittal.
- Appeal is not a constitutional right; habeas corpus is collateral review after state remedies.
Worked example
A defendant convicted in state trial court claims his confession was coerced. Direct appeal goes to the state intermediate appellate court, then the state supreme court. Only after state remedies are exhausted may he seek federal habeas in a federal district court. The U.S. Supreme Court is never the first stop; certiorari is discretionary.
Traps that cost marks
Saying the Supreme Court must hear appeals; confusing the grand jury (indictment) with the petit jury (trial); believing Gideon covers every misdemeanor regardless of imprisonment; treating a preliminary hearing as a trial.