POL_SC 1100 Lecture : Judiciary .docx
3 Mar 2014
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Document Summary
Supposed to be a non political system: not meant to be a democratic institution, public opinion should not sway the courts, where evidence is presented to a judge and/or a jury, where cases are decided, levels of courts, court of original jurisdiction, trial courts, appellate court, courts of appeal, cases are heard there, types of courts, district courts, circuit courts, supreme court, courts of original jurisdiction, trial courts, the country is divided into 94 districts, appellate courts, middle layer, the country is divided into 13 circuits, missouri is in the 8th circuit. General overview: adversarial system, non-political system, primary function, to adjudicate, meaning, they make decisions/decide cases, primary objective, to protect individual rights and liberty, they"re supposed to protect the minority from the majority opinion, to do so, judges cannot let personal biases get in the way of making judgments, questions about the courts answered by fed.
