Update:
Please note that all the terms below refer to the federal court system. State court systems have different names for different levels of court.
For example, in Illinois they have the state supreme court, appellate courts, and circuit courts.
The state supreme court is immediately below the US Supreme Court.
The appellate court is the state equivalent to the federal appellate courts.
But, the state circuit court is equivalent to the federal district court.
I currently do not have visibility into the state court systems. I normally only hear about them once they make their way into the federal system, via appeal.
| Term | Definition |
| Administrative Panel | A three judge panel at the appellate level that hears motions on the courts emergency docket. |
| Administrative Stay | A stay lasting a short time while a court looks into the motion. |
| Appeal | A motion to a superior court requesting a correction to this courts order(s) |
| Appellate Court | An inferior court immediately under the Supreme Court and above District Courts |
| Article III Courts | The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. |
| Assault Rifle | Propaganda term for a center fire rifle that is scary. |
| Assault Rifle (2) | A select fire rifle that fires an intermediate round. |
| Assault Weapon | Propaganda term for a firearm that is scary. |
| Assault Weapon(2) | Propaganda term for a center fire rifle that is scary. |
| AWA | Anonymous Web Angel. Miguel’s name for me when I started supporting his site. |
| AWB | Assault Weapon Ban |
| B.L.U.F. | Bottom Line Up Front. Put the conclusion at the top of a document. |
| Case Docket | The documents associated with a particular case |
| CCL | Concealed Carry License |
| CCW | Concealed Carry of Weapon |
| certiorari | The Supreme Court’s word for an agreement to hear a case |
| Circuit Court | Another name for an Appellate Court |
| Circus | A derogatory term for a circuit court, e.g. The First Circus issued an opinion uploading an infringement based on means-end. |
| Court Docket | The list of cases for a particular court. |
| District Court | The most inferior court in the federal court system |
| Docket | A collection of court documents |
| Emergency Docket | A court’s docket for cases that require an immediate response. i.e. a request to stay an execution. |
| en banc | The full circuit court, except for the Ninth Circuit. There are so many judges on the Ninth Circuit that their “en banc” panels are a subset of the entire court. |
| F.R.A.P. | Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure |
| Final Judgment | An order by the court closing a case after the trial or oral arguments. |
| GFZ | GunFreeZone.net |
| GFZ (2) | Propaganda term for a government mandated civilian disarmament zone. A location where only the criminals and government have arms. |
| Grant | The Supreme Court or Circuit Court agreeing to hear a case. |
| Gun Safety | Civilian Disarmament by law |
| Gun Safety (2) | Treat every gun as if it is loaded, don’t point a gun at anything you are not willing to destroy, keep your bugger hook off the bang stick until you are ready to shoot, be aware of your target and anything beyond. |
| Gun Violence | A propaganda term for any violence where a gun was present. Includes justifiable homicide, suicide, self-defense, murder and much more. |
| GVR | To Grant certiorari, Vacate the inferior courts judgment, and Remand to the inferior court. |
| Inferior court | Any federal court that is not the Supreme Court |
| Injunction | An order by a court stopping a party and their minions from doing something. |
| interlocutory | A case that does not have a judgment. It is still in the preliminary stages. |
| Judge’s Docket | The list of cases assigned to a particular judge. |
| LCM | Propaganda term for standard magazines that hold a scary number of rounds |
| Mass Shooting | A propaganda term for any time guns are used when there was more than two people present. |
| Mass Shooting (2) | the FBI defines a “mass shooting” as any incident in which at least four people are murdered with a gun. |
| Merits Panel | A three judge panel at the appellate level that hears a case on its merits. |
| Motion | A request by a party to the court for something. For example, a motion to dismiss. |
| Order(s) | Instructions issued by a court. These can be scheduling orders, briefing requirements, granting or denying motions from the parties. |
| Permit to Purchase | A scheme where you need to get government permission to exercise a core civil right. |
| Petition | A particular type of motion |
| Preliminary Injunction | An injunction that lasts for the duration of a case. |
| Remand | To send a case to an inferior court for a do over. |
| Rogue Court | A court that refuses to follow the Supreme Court’s decisions. See First, Second, Third, fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circus courts. |
| Safe Storage | A government mandate to make your firearms inaccessible in an emergency or urgency. |
| Safe Storage (2) | Proper evaluation of your situation and protecting your firearms from unauthorized access. |
| Senior Judge | A judge that is mostly retired. A judge that is inactive but still participates in cases. |
| Sensitive Location | GFZ(2) |
| Sensitive Location (2) | A location with comprehensive armed security where the location has accepted responsibility for providing security. |
| Shadow Docket | A propaganda term for emergency docket used by people that don’t approve of courts making decisions regarding which case they will hear on an emergency basis. |
| Snark | Come on, do you really need me to define this? |
| Standing | A party has standing if there is a live issue and it affects the party. |
| Stay | An order by a court stopping an action by that court or an inferior court |
| Summary Judgment | An order by a court closing a case or part of a case based on the briefed merits before trial or oral arguments |
| Supreme Court | The top court of the United States. There is NO court above the Supreme Court |
| Temporary Restraining Order | An injunction that lasts until a court can decided on a preliminary injunction |
| TL;DR; | To long; Didn’t Read; Rude way of saying that something was so wordy that you didn’t put in the effort to read it. |
| Tl;DR; (2) | A note by the author of the short version of their article for people with short attention spans. |
| TRO | Temporary Restraining Order |
| Vacate | For a superior court to dismiss an inferior courts judgment |
| Winter Factors | Four questions a court must answer before issuing a Preliminary Injunction or a stay. |
Comments
2 responses to “Glossary – Updated 2024-03-18”
One confusing detail: the names of the levels of courts you gave are the ones that apply to Federal courts. States have their own naming, and often are not just different but confusing, such as NY which apparently has a “Superior” court which is actually the lowest level trial court. (The kangaroo court that convicted DJT is the one that comes to mind.)
Boy, do you have that right. I ran into this when I heard that a case was being heard by the Illinois circuit court. As the update explains, the IL circuit court is the lowest level of state court.