Evolution Of Federal Courts Essay

The history evolution of the federal courts began to evolve as early as the Constitutional Convention held in 1787. It was during the Constitutional Convention that a resolution was adopted that “a national judiciary be established” (Neubauer & Fradella, 2008, p. 65). Of course, there was considerable disagreement between federalists and anti-federalists. The disagreement surrounded the fact the anti-federalists feared that individual liberties could be weakened. According to Neubauer and Fradella (2008), the conflict between federalists and anti-federalists was resolved by the compromise in the development of Article III.
After the ratification of the Constitution, the first bill introduced in the Senate dealt with issues that were not resolved within the federal courts. The Judiciary Act of 1789 “laid the foundation for our current national judicial system” (Neubauer & Fradella, 2008, p. 65). The act created separate federal district courts. It was during this time
that boundaries were established between state and federal lines. In today’s world, it is hard to imagine circuit court judge’s traveling by horse to outlying communities. The complaints continued to mount during this time period that the caseloads were getting out of hand.
In 1891, the court of appeals act was enacted.
This act was created, according to Neubauer and Fradella (2008), was in response to increased federal litigation resulting from a rapidly expanding population and growth of business following the Civil War (p. 66). To solve the burden of being overloaded with cases, the act established new courts known as circuit court of appeals. It would be under this act, that appeals of trial decisions would be heard. By doing so, the high court could hear more important cases.
Federal courts of today can be broken down into four layers. Those layers are magistrate, district, appellate, and Supreme Court. Magistrate courts can be thought of as the same as state trial court judges, as they have limited jurisdiction. District courts are located in every state. The President of the United States nominates the judges for each district court judge. The nomination must be approved by the Senate. District courts handle the criminal cases such as drug violations and
fraud.
What if a case crossed state lines? This created quite the dilemma. In Erie Railroad v. Tompkins (1938), the federal applied state law, not federal when hearing state claims. Federal cases can only supercede state cases under the following: suits between states, cases involving high-ranking individuals, federal crimes, bankruptcy, trademark cases, admiralty, antitrust, banking regulation and other cases specified by federal statute (Neubauer & Fradella, 2008, p. 71).