What is a state or U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals? In the earlyhistory of America, each Supreme Court justice traveled to a groupof states to hold appeals court cases that had been referred fromthe district courts. While an associate Supreme Court justice mayoccasionally act in an appellate decision (such as a last-minutedeath penalty appeal), there are now too many cases for the ninejustices to hear.

Cases for which federal appeals courts have jurisdiction includethose involving treaties, patents, bankruptcies, issues ofconstitutionality (occasionally involving unusually large punitivedamage awards), cases involving ambassadors, admiralty cases,habeas corpus, interstate disputes, diversity of venuesituations, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA),the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) and similar U.S.government cases. Under the U.S. Constitution the state courtshandle everything else. In the federal court system the districtcourt is the trial court. In states the trial court may havedifferent names: the superior court, the county court, and in NewYork the trial court is called the “supreme” court, while thehigher court is the Court of Appeals.

The Appeal