Virginia State Government The JUDICIAL BRANCH
Criminal vs. Civil Felony vs. Misdemeanor Federal vs. State REVIEW Criminal vs. Civil Felony vs. Misdemeanor Federal vs. State
Judicial Branch Purpose = Interpret laws – decide if they are Constitutional or not So, a lot of you guys asked me “what does interpret mean” after a few of the SOL reviews. Interpret is basically how do you see something. If you’re playing a game and mom says “Take out the trash when you’re done” . . . How many of you will get in trouble if you don’t take out the trash within 30 seconds? How many of you actually have five minutes? How did you INTERPRET what mom said as ‘when you are done’? How many of you heard her say ‘right now”? And that is the problem with laws vs. the Constitution. There is no REAL/CLEAR answer – most of the time it is up to a judge or the courts to decide whether a law is good or not good. And that constantly changes. The good ‘ol Supreme Court in 1890 said it is OK for a black man to sit in a different train car . . .
Levels of Court - FEDERAL The United States U.S. Supreme Court: Justices, no jury; appellate jurisdiction; limited original jurisdiction Hear cases about the Constitution U.S. Court of Appeals: Judges, no jury; appellate jurisdiction U.S. District Court: Judge, with or without jury; original jurisdiction ALL FEDERAL crimes start here! So, the structure of the STATE court is almost identical to the structure of the FEDERAL courts. I thought it would be a great idea to review back to unit 5 and identify the order of the courts. Remember that flow chart I had you guys write off into the margins? Well, here it is again – back to haunt you. But, seriously. This is how court cases are handled. If a FEDERAL law is broken (bankruptcy, crimes on military bases, crimes across state lines) – no matter what the crime is, it is handled in US FEDERAL court. PLEASE do not get this mixed up with the seriousness of a crime! Murdering 1,000 people in one town is not good – but don’t automatically assume it is a federal case. It would be a FELONY, but not a federal crime
Levels of Court - STATE Virginia VA Supreme Court: Justices, no jury; appellate jurisdiction; limited original jurisdiction VA Court of Appeals: Judges, no jury; circuit courts appeal here Circuit Court: Judge, with or without jury; felony criminal cases start here; district courts appeal here District Court: Judge, no jury; All misdemeanor and civil cases start here! So, here are the levels of the STATE court. Everything would be EXACTLY the same, if it weren’t for those PESKY civil cases! UGH! They mess up EVERYTHING! So, at the state level, misdemeanors (small criminal cases) and civil suits (money) start at the DISTRICT level. Felony start at Circuit. And then they appeal upwards from there. So, a district court has three levels of appeal before the federal supreme court – circuit court only has two.
TASK – Pin the Case to the Court Courts were VERY tricky for us! VERY VERY TRICKY! You and your Olympic team are going to create a fictional court case that would be heard in each of the seven types of courts. You will have about 20 minutes to do this with your team – so work efficiently! Do NOT make it TOO obvious, but you NEED to get it checked by me FEDERAL District FEDERAL appeal FEDERAL Supreme STATE Circuit STATE District STATE Appeal STATE Supreme
Court Case – Olympic Game After you think you are done, bring me your large paper! I will check it over! When we are all ready, I will give you the situations from another group and you will have to figure out what court they will be heard in. Your team will get a white board and a marker. Write the name of the TEAM’S WHOSE PAPER YOU HAVE at the top. DO NOT ERASE THIS THE WHOLE GAME! I will say the name of a court. You will write the number of the situation that you think goes to that court. You will have one minute per round. Each round earns you a point. The team with the most points get gold.