Elements of Civil Government / A Text-Book for Use in Public Schools, High Schools and Normal Schools and a Manual of Reference for Teachers

by Alexander L. Peterman

CHAPTER XIV.

THE UNITED STATES--(Continued).

JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT.

The judicial department is one of the three great departments of the government, being coordinate with Congress, the legislative power, and with the President, the executive power. The principle of three coordinate departments of government is new, the United States being the first nation that ever embodied it in its constitution.

The judicial system of the United States includes the Supreme Court of the United States, the circuit courts of appeals, district courts, the courts of the District of Columbia, the court of claims, the court of customs appeals, a territorial court for each of the Territories, and several commissioners' courts in each of the States.

JURISDICTION OF UNITED STATES COURTS.--The jurisdiction of United States courts extends to the following classes of suits at law:

1. To all cases arising under laws passed by Congress.

2. Those affecting ministers, consuls, and other agents of the United States and foreign countries.

3. Suits arising on the high seas.