In the United States, must state courts follow rulings by federal courts of appeals? In the United States, must state courts follow rulings by federal courts of appeals?
Widely accepted answer: no, state courts are not bound by circuit precedent The near-consensus is that state courts need not follow the rulings by federal courts of appeal.1 State courts are coordinate and coequal with the lower federal courts on matters of federal law.2 Only United States Supreme Court precedent binds state courts on matters of federal law. And state courts are supreme, even relative to the Supreme Court of the United States, on matters of state law.3 See this summary from the Georgetown Law Writing Centre (pp. 4-5). Amanda Frost says that the &quot;conventional wisdom&quot; is that &quot;lower federal court precedent cannot bind state courts&quot; (&quot;Inferiority Complex: Should State Courts Follow Lower Federal Court Precedent on the Meaning of Federal Law?&quot; (2015)): Most state courts assert that they are free to reach their own conclusions about the meaning of federal law, even when doing so creates a conflict with the federal court of appeals presiding over the geographic region in which they sit. Several federal circuits have conceded that their decisions are not binding on state courts... A number of federal courts scholars have declared that state courts need not follow lower federal court precedent because state courts are &quot;coordinate&quot; with lower federal courts and not &quot;subordinate&quot; to them. Frost presents several state-circuit splits. For example (as of 2015): In 2000, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that the Fifth Amendment requires only that law enforcement inform a suspect that he has a right to counsel prior to interrogation, without specifying that counsel may be present during the interrogation. That decision is in direct conflict with the 1968 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit holding that a suspect must be informed that he has a right to counsel before and during interrogation. Accordingly, the standard for Mirandizing a suspect in the state of Texas varies depending on whether the case would be tried in state or federal court. Frost goes on to argue for a change: that &quot;under some circumstances,&quot; state courts should be mandated to &quot;follow the precedent of the federal court of appeals for the geographic region in which that state is located&quot; (at p. 62). The relationship between the federal circuits and state courts is also summarized by Wayne A. Logan in &quot;A House Divided: When State and Lower Federal Courts Disagree on Federal Constitutional Rights&quot; (2014): ... state courts have long shared a concurrent obligation with lower federal courts to interpret the U.S. Constitution and protect the rights contained in it. Cricially important as well, state courts do so independently of their federal counterparts. They need not defer to the constitutional positions adopted by federal circuit courts, including those in which they are geographically situated, which lack direct appellate review authority over them. As a consequence, on all issues other than the comparatively narrow range of questions expressly addressed by the Supreme Court, state and lower federal courts are free to disagree... One of the citations within the above passage quotes from the Fourth Circuit: Though state courts may for policy reasons follow the decisions of the Court of Appeals whose circuit includes their state, they are not obliged to do so. But the Ninth Circuit says state courts are bound; California and the Supreme Court disagree However, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is somewhat obstinate in its position that the state courts within its boundaries are bound by its precedent. California state courts disagree. And apparently, so does the United States Supreme Court. It commented on the Ninth Circuit's position in Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43 (1997), calling the Ninth Circuit's position &quot;remarkable.&quot; See footnote 11: The Court of Appeals questioned the wisdom of the view expressed &quot;in the academic literature,&quot; &quot;by some state courts,&quot; and by &quot;several individual justices&quot; that state courts are &quot;coordinate and coequal with the lower federal courts on matters of federal law.&quot; ... But c.f. ASARCO Inc. v. Kadish, 490 U.S. 605, 617 (1989) (&quot;state courts . . . possess the authority, absent a provision for exclusive federal jurisdiction, to render binding judicial decisions on their own interpretations of federal law&quot;); Lockhart v. Fretwell, 506 U.S&gt; 364, 375-376 (1993) (Thomas J. concurring) (Supremacy Clause does not require state courts to follow rulings by federal courts of appeals on questions of federal law). 1. Do not confuse state courts (which are entire judicial systems within each state) with federal district courts (which are the trial-level courts of the federal judiciary, necessarily distributed around the states within a circuit). Federal district courts, over which circuit courts of appeal have direct appellate review, are bound by their circuit precedent. 2. In this context, &quot;lower federal courts&quot; means federal courts other than the Supreme Court of the United States. Circuit precedent is set by their Courts of Appeals. 3. But see Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816); Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032 (1983). Where the validity of a state law or the availability of a remedy for state action depends on the interpretation of federal law, including interpretation of the US Constitution, this is a question of federal law, reviewable by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Indian Constitution provides for a Federal government in which power of states and centres are clearly enunciated. If there is a dispute over any issue Supreme Court can decide whether State government is correct, or whether Central government is correct. Any law of Parliament affects the entire population of India, and so all states are affected by that law. If any state government considers that the law is not as per constitutional norms, it can easily go to the Supreme Court for decision. So, the observation of the Supreme Court that a state is bound by the law of Parliament, is incorrect. If an individual can file such a case, a state is also entitled to file it. The Supreme Court should decide it on the basis of merit. So I think the observation of Supreme Court in this case is not correct.
No Any such law would violate the US First Amendment as an improper restriction of speech and of the press. If done by the court rather thiygh a law, it would also conflict with 17 USC 105 which says that: Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government Courts have restricted video and still photography of court proceedings, on the ground that the presence of cameras would disturb court sessions and distract witnesses and jurors. But that would not apply to the proceedings of an appellate court.
My question is this in fact unique? Have any other cases in the US federal courts been decided at the appeals or higher level based upon a dead judge's written opinion, and if so, have they then survived appeal? This happens roughly a couple of times a year on average in the U.S. Courts of Appeal, usually when an opinion has been agreed to in principle and a final draft of the opinion has been approved, but release of the opinion is delayed, for example, to allow the dissenting opinion in the case to be completed prior to publication of the decision. The blog "How Appealing" regularly reports this practice when it happens, although its accounts of this practice are not comprehensive. To the best of my knowledge, no appellate court opinion has ever been reversed on appeal because a judge died prior to its publication. For comparison's sake, in the most recent year for which statistics are available (2017) the U.S. Courts of Appeal handled 60,877 cases, so this happens in less than one in 30,000 cases (you have to combine the regional U.S. Courts of Appeal and the Federal Circuit which is reported separately for statistical purposes to get the total).
Does this create precedent? NO This was a Crown Court case, only the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal can set precedent which it did with similar circumstances in R v Hill 1989
Courts look to primary authority first, and then to secondary authority if ambiguity remains. Primary Authority providing definition for the legal use of a word would be previous case opinions that give meaning to a word in a given context, how the word is actually defined in the statutes for the state, or, in the case of federal law, the federal statutes or Code of Federal Regulations. Within primary sources, you also consider whether a prior definition is binding on the court (i.e., the court has to follow it) or whether it is merely persuasive authority (that the court can choose to follow, but is not required to follow based on precedent &ndash; sometimes call Stare Decisis). Primary authority is binding on a court if the definition comes from a higher court in the direct appellate chain of the deciding court, it is persuasive otherwise. Secondary Authority is everything else. For example, Black's Law Dictionary, Whigmore on Evidence, or any other legal treatise would also be a secondary source. (All secondary authority is persuasive authority.) Courts, in absence of either, will look to how a word is commonly used in the context in which it is applied. All seek to give the proper meaning to a word or phrase in light of how it is being used.
When judges are finder of fact, the standard is one of deference to the trial court, but may be overcome if the trial court made a "clearly erroneous finding". See Concrete v. Const. Laborers, 508 U.S. 602 (1993).
The law works in the opposite direction of what you seem to be imagining. State courts generally have jurisdiction to hear lawsuits based on federal law, even without &quot;authorization&quot; from Congress. It is therefore perfectly normal to see lawsuits under Section 1983 , the Privacy Protection Act, or the Magnuson-Moss Consumer Protection Act being litigated in state court. Instead, when Congress authorizes a private right of action, it includes explicit language when it does not want cases heard in state court. This is the case with copyright, patent, and bankruptcy litigation, for example.