The familiar three-level map contains the district courts, the courts of appeals, and the Supreme Court. The nation has 94 federal judicial districts. Those districts are grouped into 12 regional circuits, each with a court of appeals; a thirteenth appellate court, the Federal Circuit, hears specialized categories from across the country. These numbers describe the current organization of the system, not powers fixed permanently by the Constitution. Congress created the lower courts and can reorganize them by law within constitutional limits.

The hierarchy divides labor. Trial courts develop records by receiving evidence, hearing witnesses, resolving disputed facts, and applying law. Appellate courts review judgments for claimed legal error; they ordinarily do not hold a second trial or receive new evidence. The Supreme Court resolves a small, selected set of disputes, including cases needed to settle important federal questions or disagreements among lower courts. A court's position in the hierarchy does not by itself create jurisdiction. Congress and the Constitution must authorize the court to hear the category of case.

This division also creates precedent. A district judge must follow controlling decisions of the Supreme Court and the court of appeals for that district's circuit. A circuit decision generally governs federal trial courts within that circuit, while another circuit may reach a different answer. A split may persist until the Supreme Court resolves it or the circuits reconsider; when the disagreement concerns a statute, Congress may amend that statute. District-court opinions can be persuasive, but one district judge does not bind every other district judge. The level and geographic reach of the deciding court therefore matter when a question asks what rule controls.

The federal judiciary is only one part of the American court system. State courts handle most litigation and have their own trial and appellate hierarchies. Federal courts can hear only constitutionally and statutorily authorized categories, while state courts usually possess general jurisdiction. A state court can decide a federal question and must follow controlling federal law; the U.S. Supreme Court may review the federal issue after the state system reaches the appropriate final judgment. This arrangement is a judicial expression of federalism, not evidence that state courts are inferior federal tribunals.

Worked path. A person sues a federal agency in a United States district court. After final judgment, the losing party appeals to the appropriate regional court of appeals. Only after that appellate judgment would the party ordinarily petition the Supreme Court for discretionary review. At each stage, the question changes: What facts and law govern the trial? Did the trial court commit reversible legal error? Does the Supreme Court have a reason to select this case from thousands of petitions?

The same diagram does not fit every dispute. Some statutes route review of agency action directly to a court of appeals. A federal question finally decided in the highest state court in which a decision could be had may reach the U.S. Supreme Court without passing through a lower federal court. Specialized courts and non-Article III tribunals also perform assigned work outside the basic three-level picture. Use the hierarchy as a starting map, then read the jurisdictional route supplied by law.

The most common beginner mistake is to route every important case upward through all three federal levels. Instead, ask four questions in order: Where was the record made? Which court has appellate authority over that decision? Is review a right or discretionary? Does a specialized statute change the route? The case's political importance cannot substitute for those jurisdictional steps.

Teach it back: For Structure of the federal judiciary, determine the court level, source of jurisdiction, route of review, and protection that supports judicial independence. Give one concrete example. Check yourself. The federal judiciary consists of the Supreme Court and lower courts created by Congress, chiefly district courts and courts of appeals. Jurisdiction, review, and precedent connect the levels without making lower judges employees of higher courts. Federal district courts are the principal trial courts, finding facts, hearing witnesses, and applying law in cases within federal jurisdiction.

Video lesson: Structure of the Court System: Crash Course Government and Politics #19