By Henry S. Kramer

Many Americans are unaware of the details of how our legal system works. Which government – federal or state-controls which aspects of our lives? Which court will hear a case? What does it mean when a district court judge enjoins a presidential executive order? What is our court system like? 

There is a hierarchy of laws. At the top of the pyramid is the Constitution, followed by statute (or legislated) laws, then regulations issued under those laws, then guidelines. Executive agencies have to follow executive orders. There are a plethora of federal and state administrative agencies, (the bureaucracy), some of which, like the Federal Reserve, operate fairly independently. 

Every American citizen (except those dwelling in the District of Columbia) is subject to two sovereign levels of government, federal and state. In DC, there is no state government; the city government operates under federal authority. 

The states are the lowest sovereign level of government. Under U.S. Supreme Court law, cities, counties, towns, and all local governments are mere sub-divisions of the state government. The state government can establish, abolish, modify, mandate, or do what it wishes with local governments, unless restricted by state constitutions. 

In many areas of the law, both the federal government and the state may act on their citizens and on residents within their borders. This is called concurrent jurisdiction. There are some cases where the federal government, using the Constitution’s supremacy clause, has entirely preempted the state government of authority (for example the National Labor Relations Act regarding unionization). When there is concurrent jurisdiction, the state laws may go further than federal law but may not override federal law. One example of this is the recreational or medical marijuana law in a state like Colorado. The state can decriminalize marijuana use under state law, which protects people from state prosecution as long as they adhere to the terms of the state law. However, all marijuana use is still illegal under federal law. The state cannot override or overturn this federal law, so it cannot protect people in these states from federal prosecution. 

There are some areas of the law confided exclusively to the federal government such as coining money or waging war. The federal government also enforces immigration law. Although some cities claim to be “sanctuary cities”, local laws cannot override federal ones and the federal government has the authority to enforce federal law. While local officials may not be forced to cooperate, active obstruction of federal enforcement is not lawful and it may also result in the withholding of federal funds. 

There are some areas in which there are three levels of government that claim authority. In civil rights there is the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the New York State Division of Human Rights, and in some counties a Human Rights Commission that enforce similar laws. 

Crimes are based on legislative (statutory) law. Most crimes are under the general police power of state criminal laws. The federal government, too, can create federal statutory crimes but most “garden house” prosecutions are done under state law. 

What is our court system like? At the lowest state court levels we have small claims, justice of the peace, and city and town courts. These have limited jurisdiction confined to just certain types of cases and dollar amounts in issue. 

The lowest level of general court jurisdiction in New York State is surprisingly -and confusingly called the New York State Supreme Court. (Because it had general jurisdiction in colonial times it was considered to be “supreme”.) Since then, New York has added two higher tiers of courts: the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court handles appeals, many by right, from the New York Supreme Court; and the New York Court of Appeals which is the highest level court of New York State law and has control and discretion over most of the cases that litigants seek to take there. 

The judgments rendered by these courts have different effects on other courts. Judgments of the State Supreme Court are not binding on other state Supreme Court judges. Decisions of the Appellate Division are binding precedent only in the judicial department in which they sit. Decisions of the New York Court of Appeals are binding state wide. The federal court system is parallel and there are some special courts such as bankruptcy court and tax court. 

At the lowest general jurisdiction level are the United States District Courts. These are trial courts, that is, they hear and decide both the facts (sometimes with a jury) and the law. On appeal, in both federal and state systems, higher level courts review the law, not the facts. 

The next higher level of the federal system is the U.S. Courts of Appeals. These are regional. Appeals at this level are generally heard by panels of three judges and rarely will all the judges in a circuit sit together on a case. Decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals are binding in their own circuit and influential in the other circuits. These are the second highest level of courts in the U.S. 

The United States Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. Very few cases can start at this level (e.g. suits between states); most Supreme Court cases are appeals. The Supreme Court has discretion whether or not to hear most cases and it hears relatively few cases; it takes four justices voting to hear a case for the matter to reach the court. Most often the cases they hear involve major principles of law and are there because the U.S. Courts of Appeals have ruled differently on the law creating a split between the circuits. Important federal issues also may be reviewed. There are nine justices. To create binding national precedent, a decision must have five votes. If a plurality opinion decides the case, it leaves the door open for the court to eventually rule differently on the issue. The court is normally very deferential to its prior decisions and although it can overrule prior decisions it rarely does overrule them. More often, the court may “distinguish” a case from its predecessors and so begin to change the law in that way. 

Cases involving laws enforced at administrative agencies often substitute the trial phase of a litigation with a hearing at the agency in lieu of the U.S. District Court. Appeals generally go from there to the U.S. Courts of Appeals. However, appeals from some agency hearings can and do go to the U.S. District Courts. 

Not every case can start in the federal system. To go there, there must be either a substantial federal question in issue or the parties must be from different states with at least a certain dollar amount at issue. Most cases are handled in the state court system. On questions of state law (which do not involve federal constitutional issues), the state courts have the last word. However, if a case reaches the state’s highest court and there is a federal constitutional issue, the litigant can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case on appeal. This is what happened in Gore v. Bush, concerning the outcome of a presidential election in Florida, which raised federal questions. 

Judges in the federal system are appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and serve for life on good behavior. They can be removed only by impeachment. Judges in state systems may be appointed or elected - it varies by state - and may serve for life or a term of office. 

An injunction is a court order forbidding the doing of some act. Federal district judges traditionally avoided making constitutional law decisions, leaving that to higher courts. Alas, no more. Federal district court judges now are prone to issuing orders and even declaring these are of national effect. Of course, these injunctions can be appealed, but this takes time. So, the parties may “forum shop” and try to find a federal district court judge they think will lean their way. As these orders don’t bind other judges, there can be conflicting orders and these have to be sorted out by higher courts. 

That, in a nutshell, is how our system works. There are variations that are not discussed but those are the basics of the system.