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Definition: Supreme Court from Collins English Dictionary

n in the US

1 the highest Federal court, possessing final appellate jurisdiction and exercising supervisory jurisdiction over the lower courts

2 (in many states) the highest state court


Supreme Court

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Highest US judicial tribunal, composed since 1869 of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Appointments are made for life by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and justices can be removed only by impeachment. Supreme Court decisions set precedents that lower courts are expected to follow. The US Supreme Court hears appeals from decisions of the US Court of Appeals and from the state supreme courts. It also adjudicates questions of constitutional propriety, conflicts between the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, conflicts between states or individuals living in different states, and conflicts in which the US government is a party. In Britain, the Supreme Court of Judicature is made up of the Court of Appeal and the High Court. The US Supreme Court was created in 1787, under Article III of the US Constitution . The number of justices is set by Congress, and the number fluctuated from 6 to 10 before settling at 9 in 1869. The role…
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Full text Article U.S. Supreme Court

From World of Criminal Justice, Gale
U.S. Supreme Court justices, 1937...
The Framers of the Constitution established the U.S. Supreme Court as the nation’s highest federal court. However, the Constitution did not provide any detail on the Court’s powers or the organization of the federal judicial branch. Therefore, when the first Congress met in 1789, one of its pressing…
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Full text Article Supreme Court

From The Great American History Fact-Finder
The highest court in the nation. The Supreme Court heads the judicial branch of the federal government. The only court specified in the Constitution (Article III), its function is threefold: to oversee the federal judicial system, to provide authoritative interpretations of federal law, and to…
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Full text Article Supreme Court

From Encyclopedia of African-American Politics
In 1965 President Lyndon Baines Johnson appointed...
The Supreme Court is one of the three branches of the government of the United States established by the Constitution under the principle of the separation of powers. Of the three branches, the Constitution is much more explicit and detailed about the powers and responsibilities of the presidency…
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Full text Article Supreme Court

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
President George W. Bush stands with U.S. Supreme...
The existence of one supreme court is mandated by Article III of the U.S. Constitution, although the existence and scope of all other federal tribunals are left to the discretion of Congress. A small area of original jurisdiction is set aside for the Supreme Court, but its appellate jurisdiction is…
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Full text Article Supreme Court

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Highest US judicial tribunal, composed since 1869 of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Appointments are made for life by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and justices can be removed only by impeachment. Supreme Court decisions set precedents that lower courts are…
| 248 words
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Full text Article supreme court

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
1 . In common parlance, a court from whose decision there is no appeal. The function of a supreme court is usually to settle, either by interpretation of statute, or by exercise of judicial reasoning under the principles of common law, questions of law that have been disputed in some lower court. It…
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Full text Article Supreme Court

From The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Houghton Mifflin
A federal court; the highest body in the judicial branch . The Supreme Court is composed of a chief justice and eight associate justices, all of whom are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate . They serve on the Court as long as they choose, subject only to impeachment . Each state…
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Full text Article Supreme Court

From Collins Dictionary of Law
the highest federal court in the USA . It comprises nine justices appointed by the President with the two-thirds majority consent of Senate. The court deals with federal law mainly on appeal but also at first instance. It was an early Chief Justice who arrogated to the court the power to strike down…
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Full text Article SUPREME COURT

From The Reader's Companion to American History
Although the Supreme Court is the most important judicial body in the world in terms of the role it plays within the political order, no one could have predicted this at the time the Constitution was written in 1787. The first chief justice, John Jay, resigned in 1795 to run for governor of New…
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Full text Article Supreme Court

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History
There is no doubt that the U.S. Supreme Court has influenced the politics of the country. As a public body, the Court is a highly visible part of the federal government. This has always been so, even when the justices met briefly twice a year in the drafty basement of the Capitol. Yet the idea that…
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