FORTY YEARS AGO last Sunday, five men broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex in Washington DC in a botched operation that would spark a chain of events that two years later would see Richard Nixon resign as the 37th president of the United States.
Federal courts hear cases involving violations of federal statues, crimes committed on federal property or disputes between residents of different states. State courts hear cases involving violations of state laws or disputes between two or more residents of that state. The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota is a Federal Court. This Court is completely separate from State Courts.
Each system typically hears different cases to ensure that each court decides the law that it knows best. State courts, for the most part, interpret state law and tend to hear the types of cases that affect the personal lives of many residents, such as probate, family law, and most criminal law. Federal courts consist of district courts, appellate courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court, and hear many different kinds of cases. Kinds of Cases Heard by Federal Courts . In the big picture, federal courts can only decide very limited types of cases: Federal Questions: Federal Courts can