Note 96 — Chapter XVIII

In two classes of these cases, namely, those in which ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls are parties and those in which a state is a party, the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction, that is, the right to hear and determine the case in the first instance. But that does not mean that the Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction in such cases. Other federal courts may try such cases, and as a matter of fact few original suits have ever been brought in the Supreme Court. In the other classes of cases mentioned, the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction (with such exceptions as Congress may make), that is, such cases must be commenced in the lower courts, from which they may be taken on appeal to the Supreme Court.