Prior to the adoption of the United States Constitution, the United States was governed by the Articles of Confederation. These articles stated that almost all functions of government were agreed to by the legislature known as Congress. There was no distinction between the legislative and executive branches. This was a major flaw in the way the United States was governed, as many leaders were unhappy with the way the government was structured by the Articles of Confederation. They believed that the government was too weak to effectively meet the challenges ahead. In 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention agreed on the need to create a national court system. This agreement became known as the Constitution of the United States, which explicitly granted certain powers to each of the three branches of the federal government, while reserving other powers exclusively to the states or the people as individuals. It is, in its own words, “the supreme law of the land” (Shmoop editorial team). The first proposals for this new plan were the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan provided for a separation of powers between the three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. Some states proposed this idea and proposed the New Jersey Plan, which called for all states to be represented equally in Congress. In order to break the impasse between the two proposals, the Connecticut Compromise was adopted. This decided that the legislature would be bicameral, which meant there would be two chambers: one would have equal representation and the other would be based on state population. This unified the states under a federal system. To date, there are three types of Fe...... middle of paper...... their decisions. They don't make the laws; That’s Congress’s job. Their primary purpose is to interpret and decide the constitutionality of federal law. As noted previously in Section 1 of Article 3 of the Constitution regarding the establishment of the Supreme Court and the creation of the lower federal courts, the combination of these judicial systems represents the original framer's compromise to establish a national court and to allow state courts to exercise jurisdiction. in disputes under federal law. Works Cited AShmoop Editorial Team. “Constitutions FAQ.” Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., November 11, 2008. Web. March 14, 2014. “District Courts.” USCOURTSGOV RSS. Np, and Web. March 14, 2014. “Structure of the Federal Courts.” Federal Court Concepts. Np, and Web. March 17, 2014. “Appeal Process Research.” Research guides. Np, and Web. March 18. 2014.