The American federal judiciary and the two-party system
Political Science - Major World Governments · Unit II · Topic 8 of 17 · 5 min read
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Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.
Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.
1. Constitutional basis
Article III vests the judicial power of the United States “in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” The Judiciary Act of 1789 set up the first federal courts. Judges “hold their Offices during good Behaviour”, which means for life, and their pay cannot be reduced while in office. They can be removed only by impeachment.
2. Organisation of the federal courts
| Court | Number | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Supreme Court | 1 | Final court; nine justices |
| Courts of Appeals | 13 | Twelve regional circuits plus the Federal Circuit |
| District Courts | 94 | Trial courts of the federal system |
There are also specialised courts such as the Court of International Trade and the Court of Federal Claims.
The Supreme Court. The number of justices is fixed by Congress, not the Constitution; it has been nine (a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices) since 1869. Franklin Roosevelt’s 1937 plan to add up to six more justices (“court-packing”) failed in Congress. Justices are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, by simple majority. There are no formal qualifications. The Court sits from October each year and chooses most of its cases by granting certiorari; it hears well under a hundred cases a term.
3. Jurisdiction
- Original jurisdiction (Article III): cases affecting ambassadors, public ministers and consuls, and cases in which a state is a party. In practice, mainly disputes between states.
- Appellate jurisdiction: appeals from the federal Courts of Appeals and from the highest state courts where a federal question (the Constitution, a federal statute or a treaty) is involved. This is nearly all of its work.
- The federal courts as a whole hear cases arising under the Constitution, federal laws and treaties, admiralty cases, cases where the United States is a party, and disputes between citizens of different states (diversity jurisdiction).
4. Judicial review
Judicial review is the power of the courts to declare a law or executive act void because it conflicts with the Constitution. It is not written in Article III. It was asserted in Marbury v. Madison (1803), where Chief Justice John Marshall held that a section of the Judiciary Act of 1789 enlarging the Court’s original jurisdiction was unconstitutional, reasoning that the Constitution is a superior law and that “it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.”
Leading illustrations:
- McCulloch v. Maryland (1819): implied powers of Congress; states cannot tax a federal institution.
- Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857): an infamous ruling that enslaved persons and their descendants were not citizens, reversed by the Fourteenth Amendment.
- Brown v. Board of Education (1954): racial segregation in public schools violates equal protection, overruling Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
- United States v. Nixon (1974): executive privilege does not shield evidence needed in a criminal trial.
- Roe v. Wade (1973), overruled by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022): a reminder that the Court can reverse itself.
Through review the Court has shaped federalism, civil rights and presidential power. Hence the remark attributed to Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes that “the Constitution is what the judges say it is,” and the description of the Court as a “third chamber” of the legislature. Its limits: it decides only actual cases, avoids “political questions”, depends on the executive to enforce its judgments, and can be overridden by constitutional amendment.
5. Parallel courts: federal and state
The United States has a dual system of courts. Each of the 50 states has its own hierarchy: trial courts, usually intermediate appellate courts, and a state supreme court. State courts decide most civil and criminal cases, under state law. In many states judges are elected. A state supreme court is final on the meaning of state law; only a federal question can be taken to the US Supreme Court. Contrast India, where there is a single integrated judiciary, the High Courts deciding both Union and State law under one Supreme Court (Unit V).
6. The two-party system
The Constitution does not mention parties; Washington warned against them in his Farewell Address. They grew anyway. Since the 1850s two parties have dominated: the Democratic Party (descended from Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans, organised under Andrew Jackson) and the Republican Party (founded in 1854 against the extension of slavery; Lincoln was its first President). Third parties (Progressives in 1912, Ross Perot in 1992) have influenced elections but not lasted.
Why two parties. Single-member, plurality elections; the winner-take-all electoral college; state laws that make ballot access hard for new parties; and a broad national consensus that lets each major party hold a wide coalition.
Organisation.
- Decentralised: the real organisation is at the state and county level.
- National committee and chair between elections; the national convention every four years nominates the presidential ticket and adopts the platform.
- Candidates are chosen by primaries, so the party organisation does not control nominations.
- In Congress, party caucuses (conferences) elect leaders and whips.
Working, functions and role. Parties nominate candidates, contest elections, organise Congress (the majority party controls the chairs and the Speakership), and give voters a choice. Compared with Britain, discipline is weak: members vote against party lines when their constituents or interests require. Lord Bryce, in The American Commonwealth, likened the two parties to two bottles with different labels but both empty. That has changed in recent decades, as the two parties have become more ideologically sorted and polarised.
How this is examined
The federal judiciary is the essay (January 2026, Q.6): constitutional basis, organisation in a table, appointment and tenure, original and appellate jurisdiction, judicial review with Marbury, three illustrations, and the dual court system. Judicial review on its own makes a short note. On parties, the usual question is the working of the two-party system: state the causes, the organisation and the contrast with disciplined British parties.
Now try the real questions: Political Science - Major World Governments past question papers.