14.2: Federal and State Court Jurisdiction

The federal judiciary is not the only judiciary in the United States. American federalism gives both the national government and state governments the power to establish and administer courts. Thus, in addition to the federal court system, each state has its own court system, some of which have existed since before the Constitution was ratified.

Cases originate in either federal courts or state courts depending on the issues at stake and the parties involved. The specific criteria which determine whether a case belongs in the federal or state judiciary are complicated, but a useful rule of thumb is that cases which “fit” neatly within a state’s borders start in that state’s court system, whereas other cases start in the federal court system. Cases pertaining to the U.S. Constitution or to federal law originate in federal courts, as do cases that cross state lines, cases involving foreign parties, and cases in which at least one party is a state.

Some cases originate in a state court but escalate to a federal court when new issues arise during the judicial process. The 1963 Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright is one prominent example. Originally, it was a standard case of breaking-and-entering, the sort of crime that state courts across the country handle on a daily basis. It became a federal matter when Florida violated Clarence Gideon’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel by denying him a lawyer when he could not afford one of his own. Had Gideon appealed his conviction purely on the grounds that he was innocent, the case would have remained under state court jurisdiction. Instead, he appealed on the basis of Florida’s unconstitutional denial of his Sixth Amendment right, which — because it involved a right guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution — made his appeal a matter for the federal courts to decide.