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So if the Appeals court can only decide if the law was applied correctly, does that mean it would have to go to the Supreme Court in order to determine if the l

• DannyBee 14y ago
  Appeals courts can determine whether a law is constitutional. However, all courts strongly prefer not to if they can.
• Lazare 14y ago
  No, any court can - in theory - declare a law or its application unconstitutional, but the lower courts are very reluctant to do so, and even appeals courts prefer to only do so in bright line cases. And I don't think this is; even if the court has grave reservations about the law, they'll likely punt and hope the Supreme Court figures it out.
• mcherm 14y ago
  No, any court can decide if the law is applied correctly or decide that a law is unconstitutional -- in fact, the lowest level of court can overturn any law. They are, however, required to apply the law correctly, including follow precedent set by any courts superior to them. Normally appeals courts only handle the question of whether the lower court applied the law correctly, and assume that the lower court interpreted the facts right. This is because normally (there are a few VERY rare exceptions) it is not legally permitted to appeal on the grounds that the court or the jury got the facts wrong... only on the grounds that the law was applied incorrectly.