I. Introduction
The core purpose of the current study is to investigate the United States court system as an undeniable part of the criminal justice system. Besides, the US court system comprises the US judiciary and the part of the federal government. To proceed further, it should be claimed that the present study is aimed at reaching a specific research objective. The research objective lies in the investigation of various approaches to the question of the United States Supreme Court as a strategic policy maker.
To put it briefly, the current research is going to emphasize the issues connected with the status and nature of the US Supreme Court as a decision maker. In that vain, the problem statement must be formulated as follows: The US Supreme Court is a strategic policy maker, notwithstanding the fact that neither the US constitution nor federal role prescribes any possibilities for the judiciary to directly participate in the political decision making process.
The aforesaid problem statement is the core drive of the present research. However, in order to guarantee coherence and semantic consistency of the study, it has been decided to elaborate a set of specific objectives. Thus, the research objectives may be enumerated as follows:
To make a thorough insight into the constitution of the US court system.
To differentiate between US federal and state courts.
To briefly ascertain the main functions of the US Supreme Court.
To analyze the main theories of the US Supreme Court as a policy maker.
To expatiate on alternative or derivative theories of the US Supreme Court as a policy maker.
To make proper inferences and conclusions.
The methodology of the current research will be composed of doctrinal, comparative, and non-doctrinal methods.
II. The general outline of the US court system
First and foremost, it should be clarified that the United States court system includes both the US federal courts and state (territorial) courts of the individual states and territories of the United States. The main discrepancy between two types of the US courts lies in the fact that the federal courts of the United States constitute the judicial branch of the federal government of the US, whereas the courts of individual US states and territories perform their competence under the prescriptions of the state and territorial constitutions and state (territorial) laws.
Expatiating on the issue of federal courts, it is necessary to reiterate that the US federal courts comprise the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States and, therefore, they function under the prescriptions of the United States Constitution and federal laws. Analysis of the US judiciary system helps to differentiate between three coequal branches of the judicial courts such as the Highest court, Appellate courts, and the courts of original jurisdiction. To be more precise, the Highest court is represented by the Supreme Court of the United States (‘Outline of the US legal system’, 2004, p. 21).
As far as Appellate courts are concerned, it should be elucidated that the courts of appeal may be distinguished either through their geographic-based appellate jurisdiction, or by …