One day, Maggie Telgenhof and her family were at an Ohio State vs University of Michigan basketball game. The game ended and one of the University of Michigan team members decided to give Maggie the game winning basketball signed by the whole team. The signed basketball was treasured greatly by Maggie.

On their way home, Maggie's parents decided to give the basketball to her older sister, Abbie.

"That's not fair!," said Maggie.

Maggie was upset that her parents took the signed basketball from her, but she remembered that...

One day, long ago, our Congress decided that we needed a federal court system, so they passed the Judiciary Act of 1789.

Hey, we should have a federal court system!

First of all, this law created legislative courts, which are also called Article I courts. These have special purposes and include the Court of Military Appeals, Court of Claims, and Tax Courts. Their judges have fixed terms and salaries. Article I courts are not as prestigious or powerful as other federal courts. But those courts don't apply to her case.

This law also created a system of constitutional courts (Article III courts). There are 12 federal courts of appeals, and 91 district courts (when they were first created there were 12, which later became 96 and is now 91). Their judges have life time terms. These courts do apply to her case.

Our government created a court system that is adversarial, meaning two conflicting parties bring their argument before an impartial judge, to settle their dispute.

There are two types of cases: criminal and civil. In a criminal case, the government charges an individual with violating one or more specific laws. Punishments in the form of jail and/or fines are issued to maintain public order.

In a civil case, a court resolves a dispute between two parties and defines the relationship between them. In these situations, no crime has been committed, but there has been a breach of principles or responsibility. This is what her case would be.

District courts are the entry points for most cases going through the federal court system. These are courts of original jurisdiction, meaning they hear a case first and determine the facts about it. They do not hear appeals.