Question

According to the Constitution, the federal courts can issue a decision only

A. in response to actual legal cases.
B. in cases where the U.S. government is one of the parties involved in the dispute.
C. on cases heard previously by a state court and appealed by the losing party.
D. in cases where the U.S. government is one of the parties involved in the dispute, and where the cases were heard previously by a state court and appealed by the losing party.
E. None of these answers is correct.

Answer 1

The federal courts can issue a decision only in response to actual legal cases, and they have different jurisdictional powers such as original jurisdiction for select cases and appellate jurisdiction for appeals from lower courts.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to the Constitution, the federal courts can issue a decision only A. in response to actual legal cases. This means that there must be a genuine and substantial controversy, an actual case or dispute, which the courts need to resolve, not a hypothetical situation.

The Constitution establishes the types of cases that federal courts have jurisdiction over, which include cases involving federal law, disputes between states, and disputes between residents of different states after the 11th Amendment.

The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in a very limited number of cases, such as those involving ambassadors or disputes between states. Most other cases are heard by the federal courts on appellate jurisdiction. This means that they can hear appeals from lower courts, including state courts if they involve a federal question or the constitutionality of a law.