I am Mr. Beat, and you are under arrest.
Hypothetically, that is. Let’s say you are accused of breaking the law.
Judas Priest: Breaking the what?
Mr. Beat: The law!
Judas Priest: Breaking the what?
Mr. Beat: I said the law!
Judas Priest: Breaking the what? (unintelligible)
Geez, Judas Priest needs to get their hearing checked.
Anyway, this video about the American court system.
And yeah, let’s say you are accused of a crime in the United States.
First of all, remember that you are innocent until proven guilty.
Let me say that again. You are innocent until proven guilty.
Say you’re accused of breaking a federal law, or a statute, or a treaty, or anything in the U.S. Constitution really.
First of all, woah. Second of all, you go straight to the federal court system.
You start out in district courts, aka the general trial courts.
There are 94 districts in the country. Some states, like my home state of Kansas, have just one district.
Other states, like Texas, have four.
Even some of the United States territories get district courts. Ah, that’s nice.
Each district court has at least one judge, appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
They can serve for life...unless they misbehave, of course.
One of the judges in my district, a dude named Sam Crow, has been a district court judge literally my entire life.
He is 93 freaking years old. But he’s joined by 10 others.
I should say that Crow would be considered a youngin’ compared to this guy.
Wesley Brown, who died in 2012 at the age of 104, was actively hearing cases also in the District of Kansas up until a month before he died.
He was the oldest person to serve as a federal judge in American history.
Anyway, at the district level, there are also subject-specific courts, you know...courts that specialize in certain areas, like taxes, claims against the federal government, and international trade.
Also, each district has its own bankruptcy court.
So say they find you guilty in district court. (gasp!) No worries, you can appeal to the circuit courts.
Also called the U.S. courts of appeals, they mostly hear appeals from district courts in a designated area.
Uh, hey, could you please put up that map again? Uh, thank you.
Yeah so I’d be appealing in District 10...no not that District 10. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
There you go.
Each circuit court has multiple judges, ranging from six in the First Circuit all the way to 29 in the Ninth Circuit.
Again, all of them appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Again, they can serve for life...unless they misbehave.
Some circuit courts also deal with specific subjects, such as veterans claims and military matters.
So say they find you guilty in circuit court. (gasp!) No worries, it’s not over yet!
Although you might worry a bit.
You can appeal again, this time to the highest court in the land, as they say, the Supreme Court of the United States, who meet in the capital, Washington, D.C.
You’ve got to petition to them. Basically, suck up to them so they’ll hear your case.
The fancy phrase for this is a writ of certiorari.
Unfortunately for you, less than 1% of all appeals are actually heard by the Supreme Court.
It’s made up of nine justices, again nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
No surprise here...they can serve for life...unless they misbehave, but who are we kidding here, no justice has ever been kicked out of the Supreme Court.
Of all the 112 justices in American history, only one has ever been impeached for...get this...being political with his decisions.
That was Samuel Chase, and while Congress impeached him in 1804, they acquitted him later on and he got to stay on the Court.
The Supreme Court hears between 100-150 cases each year.
They meet beginning the first Monday in October, and, depending on how busy they get, meet regularly until the next summer, usually until late June.
Sometimes the Supreme Court will combine lower court appeals into one case, and sometimes cases even begin in the Supreme Court.
This is called “original jurisdiction,” and one example of this typically happening is when there is a dispute between two states, like in the 1998 case New Jersey v. New York.
If you are a subscriber of this channel, you probably already know I have an entire series dedicated to important Supreme Court cases called Supreme Court Briefs.
If you haven't heard of it, though, check out the series for a deeper understanding of the Supreme Court, eh?
If the Supreme Court rules against you, I'm sorry. You're done.
However, the Supreme Court does have a regular habit of overruling itself every so often.
For example, they said segregated public facilities were ok in Plessy v. Ferguson, but later overruled themselves with the Brown v. the Board of Education decision.
Granted, that was nine different justices by that time, but still.
Ok, so now let's say you’re accused of breaking a state law.
Actually, that’s the most likely scenario, as most laws that apply to you are state laws.
State courts handle the vast majority of criminal cases in the country.
While it’s different in every state, state courts are usually common law courts, or courts where judges often use precedent, or previous judicial decisions, to interpret state laws.
They are courts of “general jurisdiction,” meaning they hear all kinds of cases.
Oh yeah, these state court judges, depending on the state or jurisdiction, may be appointed by the governor for life like federal judges, or appointed for a limited time, or elected.
Actually, 90 percent of state judges are elected, and nearly every American who votes has no idea who they are yet many of them vote for them anyway.
So a judge will hear your case, which probably will be settled without a trial.
You’ll probably just say you’re guilty, even if you’re not.
That’s right, probably more than 90% of cases end in guilty pleas and never goes to trial.
But say you’re lucky enough to get your case to trial. Similar to federal courts, state courts also have district courts, appeals courts, and supreme courts, although in some states the highest court is called something else.
So say you are found guilty at every level in state court.
Well you could then appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.
But the odds of the Supreme Court hearing your case from the state courts is even less likely than it was if it was in the federal court system.
And you’ll probably need a lawyer or two or three or four to help you defend yourself in the legal system. That gets expensive.
In fact, if you do end up appealing your case expect to spend tens of thousands of dollars.
For serious charges, it’s even more expensive. According to one report, the cost of a death penalty defense averaged $127,363.58 per case.
So yeah, so let’s say you just want to sue someone.
Well that’s civil court. You know, civil cases, and it can happen in both state and federal courts.
First of all, you can sue anyone for almost anything, as long as there is a valid cause of action.
You first have to let the defendant know you are suing them and why you are suing them.
Hey that reminds me...
(dials Steven)
Steven: It's a good book.
Steven: Hello?
Hey Steven, how are you doing? Steven: I’m great! How are you?
Oh great! How is the family? Steven: Just fine. How is yours?
Oh fantastic. I’m going to sue you. (Steven acts surprised, to say the least)
You can demand the defendant pays you or try to get a court to order the defendant from doing whatever it was you are suing them for.
Judges will try to get you to resolve your dispute before going to court, of course, but ultimately you get a trial, and a jury if the amount you are suing for is at least $300 or so.
That’s both for civil cases in federal court and state courts….well MOST state courts, that is.
So if you do get that jury, or if you’re just appearing before a judge, you have to convince them by what’s known as a “preponderance of the evidence.”
In other words, it has to be clear the person you sued hurt you bad, man.
And if you lose the lawsuit, you can appeal, just like with criminal cases.
So good luck to you, you innocent until proven guilty in a court of law person, you.
Hang in there, and thanks for watching...likely from prison, hypothetically!
This video topic was recommended by my terrific Patreon supporter Kenneth.
Thank you Kenneth for suggesting this wonderful topic
that compliments my Supreme Court Briefs series really well.
I took his suggestion because he donates to me at the Grover Cleveland level on Patreon.
Speaking of Supreme Court Briefs, if you want to check out the entire series, I have a link in the description.
I have a new episode of Supreme Court Briefs next week!
Thank you again for watching.