Original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States
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Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
has
original jurisdiction In common law legal systems original jurisdiction of a court is the power to hear a case for the first time, as opposed to appellate jurisdiction, when a higher court has the power to review a lower court's decision. India In India, the S ...
in a small class of cases described in Article III, section 2, of the
United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
and further delineated by statute.


Authority

The relevant constitutional clause states: Certain cases that have not been considered by a lower court may be heard by the Supreme Court in the first instance under what is termed
original jurisdiction In common law legal systems original jurisdiction of a court is the power to hear a case for the first time, as opposed to appellate jurisdiction, when a higher court has the power to review a lower court's decision. India In India, the S ...
. The Supreme Court's authority in this respect is derived from Article III of the Constitution, which states that the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction "in all cases affecting
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s, other public ministers and
consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...
s, and those in which a state shall be party." The original jurisdiction of the court is set forth in . This statute provides that lower federal courts may also hear cases where the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction, with the exception of disputes between two or more states. When a case is between two or more states, the Supreme Court holds both original and
exclusive jurisdiction Exclusive jurisdiction exists in civil procedure if one court has the power to adjudicate a case to the exclusion of all other courts. The opposite situation is concurrent jurisdiction (or non-exclusive jurisdiction) in which more than one court ...
, and no lower court may hear such cases. In one of its earliest cases, ''
Chisholm v. Georgia ''Chisholm v. Georgia'', 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419 (1793), is considered the first United States Supreme Court case of significance and impact. Since the case was argued prior to the formal pronouncement of judicial review by ''Marbury v. Madison'' (180 ...
'', the court found this jurisdiction to be self-executing, so that no further congressional action was required to permit the court to exercise it. The constitutional grant of original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court cannot be expanded by statute. In the case of ''
Marbury v. Madison ''Marbury v. Madison'', 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in the United States, meaning that American courts have the power to strike down laws and statutes t ...
'', the newly elected President,
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 โ€“ July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
, ordered his acting Secretary of State not to deliver commissions for appointments that had been made by his predecessor,
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 โ€“ July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
. One of these appointees,
William Marbury William Marbury (November 7, 1762 โ€“ March 13, 1835) was a highly successful American businessman and one of the " Midnight Judges" appointed by United States President John Adams the day before he left office. He was the plaintiff in the landma ...
, filed a petition for a
writ of mandamus (; ) is a judicial remedy in the form of an order from a court to any government, subordinate court, corporation, or public authority, to do (or forbear from doing) some specific act which that body is obliged under law to do (or refrain from ...
directly in the Supreme Court, on the jurisdictional grounds that the Judiciary Act of 1789 stated that the Supreme Court "shall have power to issue writs of prohibition to the district courts ..and writs of mandamus ..to any courts appointed, or persons holding office, under the authority of the United States". The court, in its first exercise of
judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...
over a statute enacted by Congress, held that this grant of power to the Supreme Court was beyond what the Constitution permitted, and that this language was therefore invalid as unconstitutional.


Cases

The number of cases heard pursuant to the court's original jurisdiction "has always been a minute portion of its overall caseload", generally including only one or two such cases per term. Most of these cases involve disputes over state boundaries and water rights, but others center on tax or interstate pollution issues. The court has tended to decline other kinds of cases arising from disputes between the states. Examples of such cases include the 1892 case of ''
United States v. Texas ''United States v. Texas'' may refer to the following United States Supreme Court cases: * ''United States v. Texas'' (2016), 579 U.S. ___ (2016), a case in which the Court considered the legality of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans p ...
'', a case to determine whether a parcel of land belonged to the United States or to Texas, and '' Virginia v. Tennessee'', a case turning on whether an incorrectly drawn boundary between two states can be changed by a state court, and whether the setting of the correct boundary requires Congressional approval. Two other original jurisdiction cases involve colonial-era borders and rights under navigable waters in ''
New Jersey v. Delaware ''New Jersey v. Delaware'', 552 U.S. 597 (2008), is a United States Supreme Court case in which New Jersey sued Delaware, invoking the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction under (a), following Delaware's denial of oil company BP's petition to ...
'', and water rights between riparian states upstream of navigable waters in ''
Kansas v. Colorado ''Kansas v. Colorado'' is a longstanding litigation before the Supreme Court of the United States between US states: Kansas and Colorado regarding the payment for the use of the Arkansas River. The Court has rendered numerous opinions on the cas ...
''. On one occasion, ''
United States v. Shipp ''United States v. Shipp'', 203 U.S. 563 (1906) (along with decisions at 214 U.S. 386 (1909), and 215 U.S. 580 (1909)), were rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States with regard to Sheriff Joseph F. Shipp and five others of Chattanooga, ...
'', a criminal complaint was filed directly to the court, following the lynching of a defendant whose appeal to the court had been granted. The case brought against those responsible for the lynching gave the court original jurisdiction over a criminal case for the first and thus far only time in its history.


Procedure

Because the nine-member Supreme Court is not well-suited to conducting pretrial proceedings or trials, original jurisdiction cases accepted by the court are typically referred to a well-qualified lawyer or lower-court judge to serve as
special master In the law of the United States, a special master is generally a subordinate official appointed by a judge to ensure judicial orders are followed, or in the alternative, to hear evidence on behalf of the judge and make recommendations to the jud ...
, conduct the proceedings, and report recommendations to the court. The court then considers whether to accept the special master's report or whether to sustain any exceptions filed to the report. Although it has not happened since 1794 in the case of '' Georgia v. Brailsford'', parties in an action at law in which the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction may request that a
jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartiality, impartial verdict (a Question of fact, finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty o ...
determine issues of fact. ''See'' '' Georgia v. Brailsford'', , in which the court conducted a jury trial. In 1950, in the case '' United States v. Louisiana'', the state of Louisiana moved for a jury trial, but the court denied the motion, ruling that the suit was an
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action and not an action at law, and that therefore the Seventh Amendment guarantee of a jury trial did not apply. If a matter involving an action at law did come before the court, however, a jury might be empaneled. The court noted in a footnote in the decision that under 28 U.S.C. ยง 1872: "In all original actions at law in the Supreme Court against citizens of the United States, issues of fact shall be tried by a jury." However, it did not decide whether the statute and the Seventh Amendment required such a jury.


References

{{SCOTUS horizontal Supreme Court of the United States