Jursidiction
511
III corresponds roughly to the power reserved to the States elsewhere in
the Constitution, and that the Federal judicial power, which is designed
to protect the national interest, is derived from and closely relates to the
delegated powers of Congress and the powers of the President.
The principle of federalism also serves to limit the Federal judicial
power in another way. The fact that the Constitution grants power to the
Federal courts in certain types of cases does not, of itself, exclude State
courts from exercising concurrent jurisdiction. Congress, as we shall see,
is free to make the jurisdiction exclusive or concurrent. Under present
law, for example, the Federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction in cases
involving patent and copyright laws; but their jurisdiction is concurrent
in cases where the parties are citizens of different States. We noted earlier
that the State courts would have exclusive jurisdiction in a dispute between two citizens of Kentucky over a case involving personal injury.
What is the rule if one of the parties is a citizen of Kentucky and the other
party is a citizen of Indiana, in light of the provision in Article III stating
that the judicial power shall extend to cases in which the parties are citizens of different States? Congress has decided, by statute, that in diversity
of citizenship cases, the case may be decided by the Federal courts or the
State courts if the dispute involves more than $10,000, and that if the sum
is less, it shall be tried in the State courts.
The power of Congress to regulate and control the Federal courts, it
may thus be seen, is formidable. The judicial power is not self-executing
and generally may not be exercised unless Congress has enacted a law
authorizing Federal courts to take jurisdiction. The Constitution confers
the judicial power on the Federal courts, but it is the Congress which confers jurisdiction; and without jurisdiction, a Federal court cannot decide
the case. In brief, the responsibility of limiting the power of the Federal
Judiciary under our checks and balances system rests primarily with the
Congress; and this is accomplished by the second clause of Article III,
Section 2, which authorizes Congress to regulate the jurisdiction of the
Federal courts.
c. jurisdiction
Whereas the first clause of Section 2 in Article III speaks of the judicial
power, the second clause refers to jurisdiction: ‘‘In all cases affecting Am-