The courts

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States. Its decisions are final, and every other court in the country must follow them. It sits in its own building in Washington, D.C., across the street from the Capitol.

The Court has nine seats: eight Associate Justices and one Chief Justice of the United States, who leads the Court. The number nine is not written in the Constitution. Congress sets the number by law, and it has been nine since 1869.

The justices decide a case by majority vote. With nine seats, five votes are usually enough to decide a case. Justices who disagree with the result may write a dissent explaining why.

A justice is chosen by the President and takes office only if the Senate votes to approve. This is one of the clearest examples of one branch checking another.

Supreme Court justices serve for life. In practice this means until they die, retire, or resign. A justice could also be removed by impeachment for serious wrongdoing, but no Supreme Court justice has ever been removed that way.

The reason for a lifetime appointment is independence. A justice never has to win an election. A justice cannot be dismissed for making an unpopular decision. That leaves a justice free to rule on what the law says, and not on what is popular at the time. Life terms keep justices independent of politics, and they limit outside political influence.

The Court receives thousands of requests each year. It agrees to hear only a small number of them. Most of the cases it takes are about the meaning of the Constitution or of a federal law. It also takes cases where lower courts have disagreed with each other.

The name of the Chief Justice changes over the years, so check uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates before your interview. That page also gives the official current answer for the number of justices.

The judicial branch is the courts. The courts review laws. They explain what the laws mean. They resolve disputes about the law, which means they settle disagreements about it. They also decide whether a law goes against the Constitution.

The judicial branch has more than one part. It includes the Supreme Court and the other federal courts below it. A federal case usually starts in a district court, which is the court that holds the trial. The side that loses can ask a higher court, called a court of appeals, to look at the case again. That request is called an appeal. Only a small number of cases reach the Supreme Court in the end.

Deciding whether a law goes against the Constitution is called judicial review. If a court finds that a law or a government action conflicts with the Constitution, that law or action cannot be enforced. This is one of the strongest checks the courts hold over Congress and the President.

Supreme Court justices and other Article III judges are chosen by the President and approved by the Senate, and they keep their posts for life as long as they behave properly. Article III is the part of the Constitution that sets up the federal courts. Because these judges do not have to win elections, they can decide against powerful people without losing their jobs.

Most everyday cases never reach a federal court. Traffic offenses, most crimes, family matters, and most disputes about contracts are heard in state courts, which each state runs under its own constitution. Federal courts handle cases about federal law and the Constitution, disputes between states, and certain disputes between people from different states.

Courts do not write laws and do not enforce them. A court can act only when someone brings a case to it, and then it decides that case. Writing the law is the work of Congress, and enforcing it is the work of the executive branch.