1. All Men Are Created Equal - To Kill A Mockingbird (1968)
Bellwork
Take out a sheet of paper. Watch the movie clip from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
1. What is strange about the seating arrangement in the court room?
2. What does Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) mean when he says “The courts are our great levelers”?
All Men Are Created Equal - To Kill A Mockingbird (1968)

2. Vocabulary For each word create a Frayer Diagram for each of the words
Dual Court System: two (or more) court systems with individual jurisdictions, usually one at the local level and national level.
Jurisdiction: the official power to make legal decisions.
Criminal Cases: a court case where a person is charged with a crime by the community or state/nation.
Civil Case: a noncriminal lawsuit, usually involving private property (i.e., suing a person for breach of contract, divorce, etc.)
Appeal: asking a higher court for a reversal of the decision of a lower court.

4. The Judicial System: The Administration of Justice
Created by Bonnie Bittman
University of Central Florida

5. The American Court Structure
America has a dual court system.
One level at the national level, one ate each state level.
Each court has its own jurisdiction

6. The Federal Courts
The authority for the federal court system is from the Constitution, Article III.
Three Levels
The Supreme Court
The federal courts of appeals
The federal district courts

7. US District Courts Heard by a judge General trial courts
Criminal cases or civil cases
Federal Criminal Cases Involve:
Bank robbery
Counterfeiting
Mail fraud
Kidnapping
Civil rights abuses
A masked man threatens a bank employee in this 1931 photo
The security strip of a U.S. $20 bill glows under black light as a safeguard against counterfeiting.

8. Circuit courts of appeals
When someone loses a case, a person may appeal their case to the federal circuit court of appeals.
Appeals do NOT overturn guilty verdicts, they examine if any mistakes were made by lawyers.

9. Map of the geographic boundaries of the various United States Courts of Appeals and United States District Courts

10. The US Supreme Court
Court of last resort for all questions of federal law and the US Constitution.
Hears cases from
Federal courts of appeals
Appealed directly from federal district courts
Appealed from the high court of a state (i.e. Florida’s Supreme Court)
If it concerns federal law or the Constitution

11. The State Courts Each state has their own court system
Generally, four levels
Trial courts of limited jurisdiction
Trial courts of general jurisdiction
Intermediate appellate courts
State supreme courts

12. Kahoot quiz
Students, on your cellphone, tablet, or computer, go to kahoot.it and enter the game code projected.