Judiciary.

The judiciary is the branch of government tasked with interpreting laws, adjudicating cases and controversies over the application of laws, and levying judgements when laws are violated. Judicial systems have been in use since the emergence of the earliest organized human civilizations. Today, judicial systems are typically composed of different courts overseen by judges who have varying responsibilities and levels of authority based on their position in the judicial hierarchy. In the United States, the judicial hierarchy consists of state and local courts, district courts, circuit courts, and the Supreme Court. Although their primary responsibility is to resolve legal cases tied to violations of the law, these courts, especially the Supreme Court, often find themselves playing an important role in the development of public policy.