The US court system structure consists of two parallel systems — federal and state — each organized as a three-tier pyramid with trial courts at the bottom, appellate courts in the middle, and a single supreme court at the top. A handful of specialized systems sit outside those two pyramids to handle military, immigration, tax, and tribal matters. Which court hears a given case depends on jurisdiction: what the dispute is about, who the parties are, and sometimes how much money is at stake. State courts do the bulk of the work. In 2025, federal courts handled roughly 346,000 cases while state courts processed about 66 million.1United States Courts. Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics 2025
The Federal Court Pyramid
Article III of the Constitution created the federal judiciary by vesting judicial power in “one supreme Court” and whatever lower courts Congress chose to establish.2Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Article III Congress built three levels, and a case moves up only when a party challenges the result below.
U.S. District Courts
District courts are the trial level. This is where witnesses testify, juries deliberate, and judges enter verdicts in both civil lawsuits and federal criminal prosecutions.3United States Department of Justice. Introduction To The Federal Court System There are 94 district courts, with at least one in every state, the District of Columbia, and several US territories.4United States Courts. About Federal Courts – Court Role and Structure Federal magistrate judges work alongside district judges, handling preliminary proceedings, search warrants, misdemeanor trials, and civil trials when both parties consent. They cannot preside over felony trials.5United States Courts. Types of Federal Judges
U.S. Courts of Appeals
Thirteen federal circuit courts sit above the district courts. Twelve cover specific geographic regions; the thirteenth, the Federal Circuit, has nationwide jurisdiction over patents, international trade, government contracts, and other specialized subjects.6United States Courts. About the U.S. Courts of Appeals Circuit courts do not retry cases. There are no witnesses, no new evidence, no jury. A panel of three judges reviews the trial record and the written briefs to decide whether the district court applied the law correctly.
The U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court sits at the top. It mostly picks its own docket through the certiorari process: a party files a petition, and at least four of the nine justices must agree to hear the case.7United States Courts. Supreme Court Procedures Roughly 7,000 to 8,000 petitions arrive each term, and the Court typically agrees to hear about 80. Its decisions bind every court in the federal system and, on questions of federal law, every state court as well.
Specialized Federal Courts
Not every federal case fits the main ladder. Congress has created courts outside the Article III hierarchy, often called Article I courts because they draw authority from Congress’s legislative power. Article III judges serve for life; Article I judges serve fixed terms.5United States Courts. Types of Federal Judges The main ones:
- Bankruptcy courts sit as units of the federal district courts and have exclusive jurisdiction over bankruptcy cases. There are 90 of them nationwide.8United States Courts. About U.S. Bankruptcy Courts
- The US Tax Court lets taxpayers challenge IRS deficiency determinations before paying the disputed amount.9Internal Revenue Service. Tax Court Jurisdiction and Proceedings
- The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handles patent appeals, international trade disputes, government contract claims, and veterans’ benefits decisions.
Appeals from these courts eventually feed back into the main hierarchy. Bankruptcy decisions can reach the circuit courts, Tax Court rulings go to the regional circuit where the taxpayer resides, and the Federal Circuit’s decisions are reviewable by the Supreme Court.
The State Court Pyramid
State courts follow the same three-tier shape, though names vary wildly. What one state calls a “superior court” another calls a “circuit court” or even a “supreme court.” New York’s trial-level court is famously named the Supreme Court. The labels change; the tiers work the same way.
Trial Courts
Every state has general-jurisdiction trial courts where cases begin. They hear testimony, examine evidence, and reach verdicts on everything from felony prosecutions to contract disputes.10Legal Information Institute. Trial Court Most states also run limited-jurisdiction courts underneath those: small claims, traffic, municipal, and similar courts built to handle high volumes of simpler matters.
Intermediate Appellate Courts
About 42 states operate an intermediate appellate court between the trial level and the state supreme court. These review the trial record for legal errors without hearing new evidence, much like federal circuit courts. In the eight states without an intermediate court, appeals go straight from the trial court to the state supreme court.
State Supreme Courts
Each state’s court of last resort has the final word on questions of state law and the state constitution. If a case involves only state-law issues, the state supreme court’s ruling is the end of the line. The exception: if a party can show the case raises a federal constitutional question, they can petition the US Supreme Court for review. That is one of the few bridges between the state and federal systems.
Which System Hears Your Case
The dividing line is jurisdiction. Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction — they only hear cases Congress has authorized them to hear. State courts have general jurisdiction and can hear nearly anything.11Legal Information Institute. General Jurisdiction
Federal Jurisdiction
Federal courts primarily take two kinds of civil cases. The first is “federal question” jurisdiction: any case involving the US Constitution, a federal statute, or a federal treaty.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1331 – Federal Question Federal criminal prosecutions — drug trafficking, tax fraud, bank robbery — fall under federal jurisdiction too.
The second is “diversity” jurisdiction: a civil lawsuit between citizens of different states where the amount in dispute exceeds $75,000.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1332 – Diversity of Citizenship; Amount in Controversy; Costs The idea is to protect out-of-state parties from potential hometown bias in a local courtroom. That $75,000 threshold has been in place since 1996 and is set by statute, not adjusted for inflation.
State Jurisdiction
State courts handle the legal matters most people actually encounter. Criminal cases for violations of state law — theft, assault, DUI — are prosecuted in state court. Divorce, child custody, probate, personal injury, landlord-tenant disputes, and most contract claims land in the state system. If your dispute doesn’t involve a federal statute or out-of-state parties with enough money at stake, your case almost certainly belongs in state court.
Concurrent Jurisdiction
Some cases qualify for both systems. A civil rights lawsuit under a federal statute can often be filed in either federal or state court. A case between residents of different states with more than $75,000 in dispute could go either way, and the plaintiff picks. This overlap is called concurrent jurisdiction. In criminal matters, a single act can violate both federal and state law, which means prosecution can happen in both systems without triggering double-jeopardy protections, because the two governments count as separate sovereigns.
How Cases Cross Between the Systems
Cases don’t always stay in the system where they start. Two mechanisms account for most of the crossover.
Removal
If a plaintiff files a case in state court that could have been brought in federal court, the defendant can “remove” it to federal court. The defendant must file a notice of removal within 30 days of being served, and the case transfers to the federal district court covering that location.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1446 – Procedure for Removal of Civil Actions For diversity cases, removal is not allowed if any defendant is a citizen of the state where the lawsuit was filed, and it generally cannot happen more than one year after the case began.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1441 – Actions Removable Generally If the federal court decides removal was improper, it sends the case back to state court through remand.
Federal Habeas Corpus
A person convicted in state court can ask a federal court to review whether the conviction violated the US Constitution or federal law. This is a federal habeas corpus petition, and it is deliberately narrow. The petitioner must first exhaust every level of state appeals, from the trial court through the state supreme court, before a federal court will even look at the claim. The federal court does not retry the case or re-weigh the evidence. It reviews the state record for constitutional errors. Relief is rare, but the route exists as a safety valve when state courts get federal constitutional questions wrong.
Courts Outside Both Pyramids
Several court systems operate outside the federal and state pyramids. They handle specialized subject areas under their own procedural rules, but most connect back to the federal judiciary somewhere in the appeals chain.
Military Courts
The military justice system runs on the Uniform Code of Military Justice and uses courts-martial at three levels. Summary courts-martial handle minor offenses with a single presiding officer. Special courts-martial serve as an intermediate level. General courts-martial try the most serious crimes and can impose any punishment the UCMJ allows, up to life imprisonment or, in capital cases, death.16Victim and Witness Assistance Council. Military Justice Overview Appeals go first to a branch-specific Court of Criminal Appeals, then to the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, a civilian court whose five judges are appointed by the president for 15-year terms. From there, the losing party can petition the US Supreme Court for certiorari, though the Court rarely takes military cases.
Administrative Tribunals
Federal agencies resolve enormous numbers of disputes through their own administrative processes before anything reaches an Article III court. Immigration courts operate under the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. Immigration judges conduct removal proceedings and rule on asylum claims; losing parties can appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, and then petition the regional federal circuit court for review.17United States Department of Justice. EOIR Organization Social Security disability claims follow a four-step administrative ladder culminating in Appeals Council review, after which a claimant can file suit in federal district court.18Social Security Administration. Appeal a Decision We Made This exhaustion requirement keeps most disputes inside the agency, a design repeated across dozens of federal programs.
Tribal Courts
Tribal courts operate as part of a separate sovereign authority. They are not federal courts and they are not state courts; they derive their power from the inherent sovereignty of tribal nations. Jurisdiction generally covers civil and criminal matters involving tribal members within Indian country.19Bureau of Indian Affairs. Tribal Court Systems Some tribes run fully developed court systems; others use Courts of Indian Offenses (CFR courts) administered under federal regulations.
The jurisdictional lines get complicated fast. Felonies involving tribal members on tribal land that qualify as federal crimes must be heard in federal court. Criminal cases involving non-tribal members in Indian country typically go to state court. The three-way overlap between tribal, federal, and state authority is one of the most intricate jurisdictional puzzles in American law, and the answer in any given case depends on who committed the offense, where it happened, and whether the victim was a tribal member.