ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the organization and jurisdiction of the federal courts and many of the constitutional issues that have bedeviled the justices and the nation for more than two centuries. Constitutional law or jurisprudence consists of the prevailing meaning of the Constitution as found mainly in decisions by the US Supreme Court. Constitutional interpretation occurs when the Supreme Court and other courts decide cases that require judges to give meaning to particular words and passages in the Constitution. The Constitution entrusts the selection of Supreme Court justices, as well as judges of the lower federal courts, to both the president and the Senate. In the fall of 1970, President Nixon was still determined to appoint a southerner to the Supreme Court. Bill Clinton's inauguration as the 42nd president in 1993 was soon followed by news of an impending vacancy on the Supreme Court as Justice Byron White on March 19 announced his intention to retire.
