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Federalism and the American court organization393rior to state courts. The majority of cases are held in state courts. Thatmeans, that state courts resolve many important cases. The federal courtsremain an alternative forum that citizens can turn to relief if state courtsprove unresponsive.4. State court systemsThe states are fundamental building-blocks of legal authority in theUnited States. Each state has its own constitution and laws, and the organicsource of state authority is conceived as arising from these state constitutions.The federal Constitution presumes the existence of the states, and it isclear that the states could not be abolished or fundamentally reshaped withoutdoing violence to the scheme of governmental authority contemplatedby the Constitution. The organic power of the states is understood to becoextensive with the “police power” – the power of government over itscitizens generally. Federal constitutional limitations on state authority accordinglyare understood to function as subtractions from the general warrantof the police power enjoyed by the states 38 .Counties, cities, towns and other governmental entities inferior to thestates are understood to be the delegates of state authority. The legal statusof these entities is largely a function of state constitutional and statutorylaw. As a result, there is considerable diversity among the states as to theform and authority of local government. As far as state system of courts isconcerned, there is no “typical” state court system because federalism allowseach state to adopt a court system fitted to its individual needs. Describingall fifty state systems would be repetitious, although there are enough similaritiesamong state court systems to allow some generalization.The basic component of the state courts are trial courts of general jurisdiction.This kind of court has jurisdiction over major civil disputes and allserious criminal offences, called “felonies” 39 . These courts are called by variousnames. The most common are: the Superior Court, the Circuit Court orthe District Court. Of course, there some exceptions, for example in NewYork these trial courts are called the “Supreme Courts”, while the highestcourt is called the “Court of Appeals”. On the whole, the territorial subdivisionsover which these state trial courts preside correspond to the countylines of a state. A court of general jurisdiction has the authority to rendera verdict in any case capable of judicial resolution under the constitution and38 A.B. Morrison, Fundamentals of American Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004,p. 28.39 A felony is often described as an offense punishable by more than one year in prison.