Also known as: appellate jurisdictions
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A court's authority to review and correct decisions of lower tribunals on questions of law or fact.
Central Ocean sued the Department of Homeland Security in district court over new cargo security fees and lost. After the court of appeals affirmed, Congress repealed the specific statutory grant allowing Supreme Court review of those fee cases while preserving other federal-question paths. Central Ocean's pending certiorari petition is dismissed because the repeal removes the only remaining appellate route for that category of claims.
A habeas petitioner lost in the court of appeals and sought Supreme Court review under a now-repealed statute. Congress had eliminated that particular avenue of review but left intact general federal-question jurisdiction for constitutional claims. The Supreme Court dismisses the petition because the repeal falls within Congress's power to regulate appellate jurisdiction without extinguishing all federal review.
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Marbury filed directly in the Supreme Court seeking a writ of mandamus to compel delivery of his judicial commission. The Court determined that the case fell outside the narrow categories of original jurisdiction listed in Article III. The petition was dismissed because the Court could exercise only appellate jurisdiction in that matter.
After a state-court jury awarded damages in a diversity case, the defendant sought Supreme Court review arguing that the verdict violated the Seventh Amendment. The Court exercised appellate jurisdiction to decide whether the reexamination of facts by a higher court was permissible. The appeal proceeded because the constitutional question arose under federal law and fit within the Court's appellate power.
A plaintiff appealed the dismissal of a civil rights complaint for failure to state a claim. The court of appeals reviewed whether the allegations satisfied the pleading standard. Appellate jurisdiction attached because the order conclusively resolved a legal question separate from the ultimate merits.
Taxpayers sued to enjoin federal expenditures they claimed violated the Establishment Clause. The district court dismissed for lack of standing. On appeal the Supreme Court exercised appellate jurisdiction to determine whether the plaintiffs had a sufficient stake to invoke the judicial power.
Article III, Section 2 provides that the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction in all cases arising under the Constitution, federal laws, and treaties, with such exceptions and regulations as Congress shall make.
Congress may repeal specific statutory grants of appellate review so long as it does not remove every avenue of Supreme Court consideration or all federal judicial review of constitutional claims.
Original jurisdiction allows the Supreme Court to hear a case as an initial matter in limited categories such as ambassador and state-party disputes. Appellate jurisdiction covers all remaining Article III cases and requires the case to begin in a lower court before reaching the Supreme Court.
…judicature, shall this court be denied that power? The second section of the third article of the Constitution gives this court appellate jurisdiction in all cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States (except the cases in which it has original jurisdiction) with such exceptions and under such…