The circuit courts of appeals are given final jurisdiction in certain cases appealed to them from the district courts, such as those arising under the patent, revenue, and criminal laws, as well as admiralty and other cases in which the opposing parties to a suit are an alien and a citizen, or are citizens of different States.  There is reserved to the Supreme Court the decision of cases involving constitutionality.

     The circuit courts of appeals have the final decision in nearly all
     other cases involving merely the application of ordinary law.

The jurisdiction of the district courts embraces criminal cases, admiralty cases, bankruptcy proceedings, suits for penalties, and the like.  In general, the jurisdiction of cases formerly in the circuit courts was transferred to the district courts when the circuit courts were discontinued.

The Court of Claims “shall hear and determine all claims founded upon any law of Congress, or upon any regulation of an executive department, or upon any contract, express or implied, with the government of the United States, which may be suggested to it by a petition filed therein; and also all claims which may be referred to said court by either house of Congress."[57]

[Footnote 57:  Statutes at Large, 612.]

Trial by Jury.—­The right of trial by jury in all criminal cases had been insisted upon by Englishmen for centuries prior to the formation of our Constitution.  There were two branches to the system, the grand and the petit juries.  Each performed the same duties as they do now.  The Constitution provides in Section 2, Clause 1, that

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crime shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed.

This clause was attacked by the opponents of the Constitution in the State conventions.  It was believed that the Constitution did not furnish adequate safeguards against unjust prosecutions.  Because of this agitation, Congress, in its first session, proposed Amendments V, VI, VII, and VIII, which were duly ratified by the several States.

Amendment V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, etc.[58]

[Footnote 58:  See Appendix A.]

Authorities have had difficulty in giving an exact definition of an infamous crime.  That given by Judge Cooley is the most satisfactory.  He says:  “But the punishment of the penitentiary must always be deemed infamous, and so must any punishment that involves the loss of civil or political privileges.”