Judicial
The judicial branch consists of
the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and District Courts. There are
nine current justices. They are appointed by the president for life. The
current chief justice is William H. Rehnquist. The other eight justices
are John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M.
Kenedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Steven
G. Breyer. The Supreme Court decides whether a law has been broken. It
also decides if laws or bills made up by congress are unconstitutional.
This means that the law can't be passed. The Supreme Court was created
by the Constitution of the United States to be sure that citizen's rights
were not ever violated, to be sure that they get a fair trial, and to protect
justice. The Court of Appeals and the District Courts were set up in 1789
by Congress. The Supreme Court could not take care of all the cases by
itself, this is where the two lower courts come in. Since the Supreme
Court couldn't handle all the cases the Court of Appeals and the District
Courts were a very big help.
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