Original Jurisdiction

• Author: Kenneth L. Karst
• Pages: 1863-1864

Page 1863

The original jurisdiction of a court (as distinguished from APPELLATE JURISDICTION) is its power to hear and decide a case from the beginning. In the federal court system, the district courts originally hear the overwhelming majority of cases. Most discussion and litigation concerning the JURISDICTION OF FEDERAL COURTS centers on the district courts' original JURISDICTION. Yet the term "original jurisdiction" is heard most frequently in discussion and litigation concerning the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

The Constitution itself establishes the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction. After setting out the types of cases subject to the JUDICIAL POWER OF THE UNITED STATES, Article III distributes the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over them: "In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all other cases mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction.?"

From the beginning, Congress has given the district courts CONCURRENT JURISDICTION over some of the cases within the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction, offering plaintiffs the option of commencing suit in either court. The Supreme Court has given this practice its stamp of constitutional approval. Furthermore, because the Court is hard-pressed by a crowded docket, it has sought ways of shunting cases to other courts. Thus, even when a case does fall within the Court's original jurisdiction, the court has conferred on itself the discretion to deny the plaintiff leave to file an original action. Typically the Court decides only three or four original jurisdiction cases each year, conserving its institutional energies for its main task: guiding the development of federal law by exercising its appellate jurisdiction.

Congress, however, cannot constitutionally diminish the Court's original jurisdiction. Nor can Congress expand that jurisdiction; the dubious reading of Article III in MARBURY V. MADISON (1803) remains firmly entrenched. However, the Supreme Court does entertain some actions that have an "original" look to them, even though Article III does not list them as original jurisdiction cases: HABEAS CORPUS is an example; so are the common law WRITS OF MANDAMUS and PROHIBITION. The Court hears such cases only when they can be characterized as "appellate," calling for Supreme Court supervision of actions by lower...