Clerking Interview

HOW A CASE GETS TO SUPREME COURT

• There are a few ways a case can get to Supreme Court:
• On appeal from state courts
• On appeal through the Federal court system
• Only limited amount of cases go directly to Supreme Court without going to lower Courts first
• Not common at all

HOW A CASE GETS TO SUPREME COURT PT. 2

• Appeal from state courts:
• Case originating from state court must work its way through the state court system up to State Supreme Court and can only be passed if there is a substantial question involving a question of US Constitutionality
• Appeal through the Federal Court System:
• Case involving Federal laws and US Constitution is to be first tried in the US District Courts, and then appealed to the US Circuit Courts of Appeals. The party losing at the Circuit Court may then appeal to US Supreme Court.

JUDICIAL REVIEW

• Review by the US Supreme Court of constitutional validity of a legislative act
• Doctrine under which legislative and executive actions are subject to review by judiciary
• Main characteristic of government in the federal republic of the US/other democratically elected governments
• It can be understood in two distinct/parallel legal systems - civil law and common

JUDICIAL REVIEW PT 2

• Common-law judges seen as sources of law, capable of creating new legal laws and rejecting ones no longer valid
• Civil-law tradition judges seen as those who apply the law, with no power to create/destroy legal laws

SONIA SOTOMAYOR

• Associate Justice of Supreme Court of US
• Serving since August 2009
• 111th Justice, 1st Hispanic Justice, 3rd female Justice
• Born in The Bronx, New York City
• Puerto Rican descent

SONIA SOTOMAYOR

• Graduated with highest honor from Princeton University in 1976
• Received J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979, editor at Yale Law Journal
• Nominated to US District Court for Southern District of New York
• By President George H. W. Bush in 1991
• Confirmed in 1992

SONIA SOTOMAYOR

• 1997, nominated by President Bill Clinton to US Courts of Appeals for Second Circuit
• Slowed by Republican majority in US Senate, but eventually confirmed in 1998
• Heard appeals in over 3000 cases and wrote 380 opinions
• Taught at New York University School of Law and Colombia Law School
• May 2009, Barack Obama nominated her to Supreme Court to replace David Souter

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110214190506AAOA24y
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_review
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sotomayor