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Supreme Court of Judicature

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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In England, a court of law established by the Judicature Act 1873, by section 3 of which it was provided that the high court of chancery, the courts of king's bench, common pleas, and exchequer, the high court of admiralty, the court of probate and the divorce court, should be united under this name. By section 4, the Supreme Court was to consist of two divisions, one to be called the "high-court of justice" and the other the "court of appeal." See further under Judicature Acts, and also the articles under the headings of the different courts enumerated above.

The Supreme Court of the United States is the head of the national judiciary. Its establishment was authorized by article iii. of the Constitution, which states that "the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish" (s. i.). Section ii. states that "the judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies between two or more states, between a state and citizens of another state, between citizens of different states, between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, and the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make." The Supreme Court of the United States also occupies the unique position of being guardian of the Constitution. It has to decide whether a measure passed by the legislative powers is unconstitutional or not, and it may thus have to veto the deliberate resolutions of both houses of Congress and the president.

See United States.