ABA Family Legal Guide

How the Legal System Works

The Structure of the Court System

State and Federal Courts

What kinds of cases can federal courts decide?

Article III of the U.S. Constitution limits the kinds of cases federal courts can hear to the following:

• Cases involving issues of federal law. This so-called federal question jurisdiction authorizes federal district courts to decide both civil and criminal cases in which federal law must be interpreted or applied. The federal law at issue may have arisen out of a federal statute or regulation, a treaty, or a provision of the Constitution itself.
• Cases involving diversity jurisdiction over controversies:

  • between citizens of different states;

  • between two or more states; and

  • between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states.
• Cases in which the U.S. government or one of its officers is a party.
• Cases that might affect America's relations with other countries, including cases that involve ambassadors, consuls, and other public ministers.
• Cases involving the laws relating to navigable waters (the oceans, the Great Lakes , and most rivers) and commerce on those waters.