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Administration. The Judicial Branch of the Government
The judicial branch of the federal government is headed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which interprets the meaning of the Constitution and of federal laws. It consists of nine justices appointed for life by the president with the consent of the Senate.
It has appellate jurisdiction for the lower federal courts and from state courts of last resort if a federal question is involved. The court has original jurisdiction over cases involving foreign ambassadors, ministers, consuls and cases to which a state is a party.
Three types of cases commonly reach the Supreme Court: cases involving litigants of different states, cases involving the interpretation of federal law and cases involving the interpretation of the Constitution. The court can take official action with as few as six judges joining in deliberation, and a majority vote of the entire court is decisive; a tie vote sustains a lower-court decision. Often the minority judges write a dissenting report.
The Supreme Court has often been criticised for its decisions. In the 1930s, for example, a conservative court overturned much of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. In the area of civil rights it has received criticism from various groups at different times.
After a 1954 ruling against school segregation, Southern political leaders attacked it harshly. Later, they were joined by Northern conservatives. A number of decisions involving the pre-trial rights of prisoners also came under attack on the ground that the court had made it difficult to convict criminals.
