| Appellate jurisdiction | The authority of a given court to review cases that have already been tried in lower courts and are appealed to it by the losing party; such a court is called an appeals court or appellate court.
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| Compliance | The issue of whether a court's decisions will be respected and obeyed.
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| Concurring opinion | A separate opinion written by a Supreme Court justice who votes with the majority on a case but who disagrees with their reasoning.
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| Decision | A vote of the Supreme Court in a particular case that indicates which party the justices side with and by how large a margin.
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| Dissenting opinion | The opinion of a justice in a Supreme Court case that explains the reasons for disagreeing with the majority position.
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| Facts (of a court case) | The relevant circumstances of a legal dispute or offense as determined by a trial court. The facts of a case are crucial because they help to determine which law or laws are applicable in the case.
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| Judicial activism | The doctrine that the courts should develop new legal principles when judges see a compelling need, even if this action places them in conflict with the policy decisions of elected officials.
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| Judicial conference | A closed meeting of the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court to discuss the points of the cases before them; the justices are not supposed to discuss conference proceedings with outsiders.
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| Judicial restraint | The doctrine that the judiciary should be highly respectful of precedent and should defer to the judgment of legislatures. The doctrine claims that the job of judges is to work within the confines of laws set down by tradition and law-making majorities.
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| Jurisdiction (of a court) | A given court's authority to hear cases of a particular kind. Jurisdiction may be original or appellate.
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| Laws (of a court case) | The constitutional provisions, legislative statutes or judicial precedents that apply to a court case.
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| Legitimacy (of judicial power) | The issue of the proper limits of judicial authority in a political system based in part on the principle of majority rule.
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| Majority opinion | A Supreme Court opinion that results when a majority of the justices are in agreement on the legal basis of a decision.
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| Opinion (of a court) | A court's written explanation of its decision which serves to inform others of the legal basis for the decision. Supreme Court opinions are expected to guide the decisions of other courts.
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| Original jurisdiction | The authority of a given court to be the first court to hear a case.
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| Plurality opinion | A court opinion that results when a majority of justices agree on a decision in a case but do not agree on the legal basis for the decision. In such instances, the legal position held by most of the justices on the winning side is called a plurality opinion.
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| Precedent | A judicial decision in a given case that serves as a rule of thumb for settling subsequent cases of a similar nature; courts are generally expected to follow precedent.
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| Senatorial courtesy | The tradition that a U.S. senator from the state in which a federal judicial vacancy has arisen should have a say in the president's nomination of the new judge if the senator is of the same party as the president.
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