Decide cases & controversies
The judicial power is the power to finally resolve disputes: federal-question cases, suits between states, diversity cases, and the rest of Article III's list. A final judgment binds the parties, and the reasoning binds the future through precedent.
Read the clause itself, verbatim and in plain language, in the in-app Constitution.
The federal courts
How it works in practice
District courts try cases (with juries where the Constitution requires); circuitOne of the thirteen regions of the federal appellate system. Saying a case is in the Ninth Circuit names both the court and the states it covers.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) courts review for legal error; the Supreme CourtThe only court the Constitution itself creates. Nine Justices, life tenure, and near-total control over which cases they hear.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) selects a few dozen questions a year by certiorariThe Supreme Court's discretionary review. Losing parties petition for a 'writ of cert'; four justices must agree to hear the case.Read the full definition (opens a new tab). Judgments are enforced by the executive and, for statuteA law passed by a legislature and signed into effect. Distinct from a regulation, which an agency writes, and from a court decision, which interprets both.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) interpretation, can be corrected by Congress simply passing a clarifying law, constitutional holdings are the ones only amendment or the Court itself can undo.
Constitution Annotated, Article III
Terms to know: jurisdictionA court's legal authority to hear a case: over the subject matter, the parties, and the territory.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) · standingThe requirement that a plaintiff show a concrete, particularized injury, caused by the defendant, that a court can redress. No injury, no case.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) · opinionA court's written explanation of its decision. The majority opinion sets precedent; concurrences agree with the result for different reasons; dissents disagree.Read the full definition (opens a new tab)