United States Court Of Appeals: Fill & Download for Free

The US federal court system is divided into twelve geographic circuits, or regions, as shown on the map at the bottom of this answer.When lawsuits that originate in the geographic area covered by the First Circuit are appealed, they are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.When lawsuits that originate in the geographic area covered by the Second Circuit are appealed, they are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.When lawsuits that originate in the geographic area covered by the Third Circuit are appealed, they are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.And so forth.There are a total of thirteen federal circuit courts. The thirteenth is the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Federal Circuit’s jurisdiction is restricted by subject matter, rather than geography. The Federal Circuit hears appeals on matters related to international trade, intellectual property, government contracts, veterans’ appeals, and a few other subjects. Approximately 2/3 of the cases that appear before the Federal Circuit involve intellectual property disputes.[Note: This map shows eleven of the regional circuits. The twelfth is the DC Circuit, which includes only the District of Columbia.]

Because hardly anyone has standing to sue in the United States Supreme Court. It’s almost entirely an appeal court, and only does a few trials.Here’s what the United States Constitution has to say about the matterIn all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.So:Are you an ambassador or consul? If not….Are you a state suing another state?If the answer is “neither”, you cannot start a suit in the Supreme Court - you have to start the suit in the court that does have jurisdiction over the matter.In addition, hardly anyone has the ability to appeal directly to the Supreme Court. In most cases, you can only appeal to the Supreme Court from another appeal court, either a state court of appeals or one of the federal circuit court of appeals.And, even then, the court has to agree to hear the case. No-one gets an automatic pass. If the justices believe the lower court got it right, they won’t bother “granting certiorari”.

“Is there a book with every law of the United States?”It would have to be a very, very large book.Here’s a photograph of the United States Code.In addition to the U.S. Code, you have the Code of Federal Regulations, which fills an entire bookcase; the statutory codes of each of the 50 states, which average about half a bookcase each; plus D.C.; plus the five territories; plus the municipal codes for every city in the country; plus the Native American tribes; and that’s only the beginning.Because the United States is a common-law country, you also need to include the reported judicial opinions from more than 50 separate jurisdictions. They fill an entire library.At the federal level, the U.S. Supreme Court is up to Volume 588 of their published reporter the last time I checked. The federal courts of appeals, collectively, are approaching volume 2500. The federal trial courts, collectively, are on track to pass volume 2370 some time this month.And don’t forget about the state courts. In California, where I live, the state supreme court recently published volume 2222, and that doesn’t include the published opinions from the state courts of appeals. I don’t know offhand what the numbers are for the other 49 states.When you add all the numbers up, you’re looking at tens of thousands of volumes of case reporters.The Law Library of Congress contains about 2.9 million volumes.