Q After the Apocalypse Worksheet 6: The Courts Although the Founding Fathers put off many decisions about the structure of the judiciary (leaving the constitution very vague), the first Congress created lower federal courts right away. What’s more, the most significant power of the federal courts (judicial review) was established within the first 30 years of the nation’s existence. Courts in the U.S. serve two primary functions: resolving disputes and checking the elected branches. What will your courts do? (1) What is more important to you: judicial independence or judicial accountability? (2) Given your answer to Question 1, how will you structure your court system to achieve this goal? What features will your court system need to include?(3) Will your court system have a hierarchy? What will the court(s) at the top look like? How will judges be chosen? What will their terms be?

Q (4) Will you have lower courts, too? How will they be divided up across the new country? (5) What powers will your courts have? What rules will they need to follow?