The Supreme Court

All courts in the United States, to varying degrees, are either organizationally or doctrinally supervised by the Supreme Court. The lower federal courts—the twelve regionally-based circuit courts of appeal and 94 district (trial) courts—are organizationally monitored by the Supreme Court. Sitting at the pinnacle of the federal judiciary, the Chief Justice of the United States submits budgetary requests to Congress, and then allocates the judiciary's budget. Rules governing federal judicial process and procedure are largely dictated by Supreme Court decisions and policy statements (but Congress plays a constitutionally defined role with regard to such matters as well).

Each justice of ...