U.S. Government and Court Systems

Flowchart nodes

• Federal Government

• Legislative Branch (Congress)

• Executive Branch (President) 

• Judicial Branch (Federal Courts) 

• State Government

• Legislative Branch (Congress) 

• Executive Branch (Governor)

• Judicial Branch (State Courts)

• Separation of Powers - checks and balances keeps each branch from becoming too powerful

• Federalism - both pass authority over citizens, and jurisdictions can operate exclusively or cooperatively to keep the federal government from being too powerful, while also still being superior to the states

• State High Courts (Supreme Courts)

• Intermediate Appellate

• Inferior Courts

• Trial Courts

• U.S. District Courts

• U.S. Supreme Court

• U.S. Courts of Appeal

• habeus corpus

• habeus corpus