It’s that time of year again - Supreme Court ruling season! The Supreme Court, or SCOTUS for short, came out with a number of major decisions recently. But how does a case get to SCOTUS? And what role do district and circuit courts play in the judicial branch?
Transcript
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Judicial Branch Short
Civics 101
Hannah McCarthy: [00:00:01] You know, Nick, it's that time of year again.
Nick Capodice: [00:00:03] Cherry blossom season in D.C.?
Hannah McCarthy: [00:00:05] No Supreme Court ruling season.
Nick Capodice: [00:00:09] That's right. They have come out with a bunch of major decisions lately. So today, our latest installment of Civic Shorts is about the judicial branch of the U.S. government.
Hannah McCarthy: [00:00:18] It's created with middle schoolers in mind.
Nick Capodice: [00:00:20] But it's also for anyone who wants a quick refresher.
Hannah McCarthy: [00:00:23] Producers Felix Poon and Jacqui Fulton are on the case. Felix and Jacqui take it away.
Archival: [00:00:30] Good morning. We have breaking news from the Supreme Court. It is a landmark decision for the LGBTQ community.
Felix Poon: [00:00:36] There were some major decisions to come out of the 2020 Supreme Court rulings.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:00:40] There was one that protects LGBTQ workers from job discrimination.
Felix Poon: [00:00:44] There was another decision on the DACA program.
Archival: [00:00:47] Blocking President Trump's plan to end the program.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:00:50] That's a program where undocumented immigrants who came into the U.S. as kids are protected from deportation.
Felix Poon: [00:00:56] And another big decision was to strike down a law in Louisiana that made it [00:01:00] harder for women to get an abortion.
Archival: [00:01:01] The Supreme Court has blocked a Louisiana abortion law from going into effect.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:01:06] The Supreme Court, as the United States or SCOTUS for short, is part of the third branch of the government, the judicial branch.
[00:01:14] And today we're going to talk about the who, what and why the judicial branch.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:01:18] I'm Jacqui.
Felix Poon: [00:01:19] And I'm Felix.
[00:01:21] Let's get this show on the road.
Archival: [00:01:25] Honorable chief justice and the associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Oyez oyez oyez, all persons having business before the honorable, the Supreme Court, of the United States are admonished to give their attention for the court is now sitting. God save the United States and this honorable court.
Felix Poon: [00:01:54] So what's the judicial branch and what does it do?
Jacqui Fulton: [00:01:56] The judicial branch is made up of state courts and federal courts. [00:02:00] Now, they don't make the laws. They don't arrest you. Their job is to interpret the laws. And judges do that sometimes with a jury, sometimes with doubt.
Felix Poon: [00:02:09] Most cases are going to be in your state court. You stole a car. You've got a divorce. State court.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:02:15] The state courts are part of the judicial branch. But we're going to focus on the federal courts in this episode. Federal courts are mostly for cases involving the U.S. Constitution or federal law.
Felix Poon: [00:02:26] There's three levels to the federal judicial branch. The district courts, the circuit courts and the Supreme Court. The lowest level are the district courts. There are 94 district courts in the United States.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:02:39] Then there's a second level. The circuit courts, which are also called appellate courts because they hear the appeals from the lower district courts.
Felix Poon: [00:02:48] Oh, appellate appeal. I get it.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:02:55] And there's 13 circuit courts, one for the 12 regions of the United States, plus [00:03:00] the federal circuit, which hears appeals in cases of patent law, international trade and other national issues.
Felix Poon: [00:03:07] What circuit are we in, Jackie?
Jacqui Fulton: [00:03:09] We're in the First Circuit. That's New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico.
Felix Poon: [00:03:14] The highest level of the judicial branch is the Supreme Court. So how does a case get to be considered by the Supreme Court?
Jacqui Fulton: [00:03:22] It's not easy to get your case heard by the Supreme Court.
Felix Poon: [00:03:25] Let's take an actual case. The governor of Michigan is Gretchen Whitmer.
[00:03:29] She closed all the gyms in the state in spring of 2020 because of Corona virus. But some Republican lawmakers weren't happy about that.
Archival: [00:03:37] And Republicans say that she's breaking the law by going around the legislature. The issue went before a judge this morning.
Felix Poon: [00:03:42] The district court judge sided with the Republican lawmakers on this one. So gyms were set to reopen. But Governor Whitmer appealed.
Archival: [00:03:50] The Governor isn't giving up yet. She's taking her case to the sixth court of Appeals. Seven Action News report.
Felix Poon: [00:03:56] And she won.
Archival: [00:03:58] The gym's must stay closed. [00:04:00] Governor Whitmer scoring a late night legal victory just hours before gyms were set to reopen their doors.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:04:06] The circuit court has no jury. The lawyers argue, in front of a panel of three judges. And in this case, they decided that the lower district court made a mistake in their interpretation of the law. So they ruled in favor of Governor Whitmer.
Felix Poon: [00:04:19] Right. And now those Republican lawmakers could try to take it to the Supreme Court. To do that, they'd have to file a petition for a writ of certiorari.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:04:27] A petition for a writ of certi-what now?
Felix Poon: [00:04:31] A petition for a writ of certiorari or a cert petition for short.
[00:04:35] It's a written request asking the Supreme Court to hear a case every year, about 8000 requests come in, but only around 80 are accepted. That's just one percent. There are certain types of cases that SCOTUS is more likely to accept, like an issue that the circuit courts disagree about.
[00:04:53] These are called split cases between one or more circuits and another circuit or circuit.
Archival: [00:05:02] A [00:05:00] three-judge panel at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals bucked the national trend Thursday, upholding four states bans on same sex marriage.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:05:09] An example of this is the 2015 case Obergefell versus Hodges, in which the Sixth Circuit Court banned same sex marriages.
Archival: [00:05:18] That puts the six circuit court in opposition to four other circuit court rulings.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:05:23] This conflicted with rulings in other circuits that upheld the right to same sex marriage.
Felix Poon: [00:05:27] Which meant that federal law was applied differently in one circuit than in other circuits. That's why the Supreme Court took the case. Whatever they ruled, it would resolve the circuit split.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:05:40] So once a case gets to SCOTUS, how do they decide the ruling?
[00:05:44] The Supreme Court takes briefs about the case. Written arguments from each side about why they should win. And they hear oral arguments from both sides. Then they meet privately, then they vote. The senior judge in the majority decides which judge with [00:06:00] a lot of help from their clerks is going to write the majority opinion. So what did they decide in the Obergefell versus Hodges case?
Archival: [00:06:06] There is a right to marriage equality, I repeat, speaking to you from the steps of the Supreme Court, there is a right to marriage equality. Read just from the bench now, waiting to get the opinions as they come running out of the court, Thomas. So this is a big day.
Jacqui Fulton: [00:06:19] They ruled in favor of same sex marriage, making same sex marriage a right nationwide.
[00:06:29] And there you have it. The judicial branch.
Felix Poon: [00:06:32] Thanks for tuning in.
Nick Capodice: [00:06:36] One last thing before we go, Hannah. We should remind listeners how judges become judges on these courts.
Hannah McCarthy: [00:06:42] Right. The president appoints them and the Senate confirms them. And the president does that
[00:06:47] for judges at district court and circuit court levels, as well as for the Supreme Court.
[00:06:53] How many district courts are there again?
Nick Capodice: [00:06:55] There's 94 district courts, 13 circuit courts.
[00:06:59] Aha, 12 circuit [00:07:00] courts with twelve regions plus the federal circuit.
Nick Capodice: [00:07:03] And the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land.
Hannah McCarthy: [00:07:06] Precisely.
[00:07:07] This episode is produced by Felix Poon with help by Jacqui Fulton, Hannah McCarthy and me, Nick Capodice.
Hannah McCarthy: [00:07:12] Erika Janik is our executive producer, music and this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.
Nick Capodice: [00:07:16] You can listen to more Civics 101 at civics101podcast.org. Civics 101 is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and is a production of NHPR, New Hampshire Public Radio.