THE COURTS
The courts and Congress — what lawmakers can and can’t change
Updated
The Constitution creates only one court, the Supreme Court, and leaves the rest of the federal judiciary to Congress. Congress decides how many courts and judges there are, much of what cases they hear and how much money they get. To keep judges independent, the Constitution protects their pay and their tenure.
- 1
The size of the Supreme Court
No number is set in the Constitution. Federal law sets the Court at a Chief Justice and eight associate justices, any six of whom make a quorum. Changing the number takes an act of Congress signed by the President.
- 2
Lower courts and judgeships
Congress creates the lower federal courts, the district courts and the courts of appeals, and decides how many judges each has and where their districts run. New judgeships and redrawn districts come by law.
- 3
Which cases courts hear
The Supreme Court hears appeals with the exceptions and under the regulations Congress makes, and Congress sets the lower courts’ jurisdiction by law.
- 4
The judiciary’s budget
The courts draw up their own budget, through the Judicial Conference, the federal courts’ policymaking body, and its Administrative Office, and send it to Congress, which approves it with the President like any other spending.
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What Congress can’t do
Judges hold office during good behavior, and their pay cannot be cut while they serve. Congress can remove a judge only by impeachment and conviction: the House has impeached 15 federal judges and the Senate removed 8, most recently in 2010.