Notes, 1:00 p.m., Spring 2001;
March 7, 2001
TYPES
OF JURIES (D)
The Federal Level
In 1998, the House of
Representatives impeached, or
brought charges, against President Clinton with the Articles of Impeachment. Though the charges against President Clinton
are made by the House of Representatives, all 100 United States Senators are the
‘federal jury’ who decide whether to convict him or not.
Since 1994, the
Republicans have had a majority in the Senate.
But only a minority of U.S. Senators voted to convict President Clinton
of the charges brought against him.
Some Republican Senators voted not to convict him. So those Senators who voted to convict
President Clinton did not have the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.
In the impeachment of
President Clinton, the Senators who voted to convict President were in the
minority. That means
less than half of the
United States Senators voted to convict President Clinton of the charges
brought against him.
Only one other President
of the United States has ever been impeached.
That man was Andrew Johnson. In 1865,
he became the President of the United States after the assassination of Abraham
Lincoln in 1865. Like President
Clinton, he was impeached
by the U.S. House of Representatives, tried by the U.S. Senate and was
acquitted.
After the Watergate scandal,
President Richard
M. Nixon lost the support of Congress. As the House of Representatives were preparing to bring charges
against him, he resigned the Presidency on August 9, 1974. A trial by the U.S. Senate for possible
removal of office was no longer needed.
Vice-President Gerald R. Ford became President.
Like Andrew Johnson, Gerald Ford was not elected to the Presidency.
THE ‘I’ WORDS
Injunction – A
court order designed to prevent harm. *Note:
A judge is the
only person who can order an injunction.
Indictment –
Charges that are brought forth by a grand jury.
Impeachment –
Charges that are brought forth from the House of Representatives.
An Information – A
charge that issued by a prosecutor to accuse a person of a crime.
Types
of Law
Criminal Law seeks
punishment. The plaintiff is always
the government. In a criminal case, a jury must find the
defendant
“guilty” beyond a reasonable doubt. This is a very hard standard to meet.
Civil Law seeks
compensation. The plaintiff is an individual or individuals who seeks
compensation for harm
or damages.
Civil law settles liability
(which means responsibility). A civil
jury is not under the same standard as a criminal jury.
Example: O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the criminal
charges brought against him, but the families of the murdered victims brought a
civil case against
him. Simpson was found liable (or
responsible) for the deaths of the victims.
He has to compensate monetarily
because a civil jury found him liable.
Types
of Crimes
A misdemeanor is a crime that is punishable by
less than one year in the county jail.
A felony is a more
serious crime, punishable by a year in the state penitentiary.
California
State Courts
California has 58
Superior Courts, one
court for each county. The Superior
Courts are part of the state court system.
Charges made by the state, as the plaintiff, against
any defendant who may have committed a crime, may be filed in Superior Court.
Small Claims Division of the Federal Tax Court
If a person from California has a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service, he or she can go to the
Federal Building in Westwood and fill out the proper forms to file their
complaint. An attorney is not needed to
settle this dispute. The dispute
is settled in the Small Claims Division of the Federal Tax Court.