NO! THE SUPREME COURT DID NOT JUST RULE THAT STEVE BANNON'S INDICTMENT FOR CONTEMPT IS DISMISSED. HERE'S WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

Today the Supreme Court issued several orders regarding "writs of certiorari" or, as we in the legal biz call them "writs of cert" or just "cert", because we're lazy that way. Among them was Steve Bannon's request for the Supreme Court to direct the lower court to review his request for his conviction for contempt of Congress to be overturned.

It's very important to remember the hierarchy of our court structures, and with what each level deals. The 'lowest' in the court hierarchy is the trial court. This is the court that handles the actual trial (hence the term 'trial court' :~) ). In other words, this is the court that holds hearings on the facts and the evidence. If you have to file a lawsuit, this is the court in which you file it. In the federal court system the lowest court is the federal district court.

Once some sort of order or other decision has come out of the lowest court, which is the order dealing with, again, the facts of the case and the evidence in the case, and the application of the law to those facts and evidence, that order can be appealed to the Court of Appeals (easy to remember, it's right in the name). The Courts of Appeals in the federal system are also known as the Circuit Courts (the history as to why they are called that is interesting, but I'm not going to go into that here). Because things can also be appealed to the Supreme Court, at the top of the federal hierarchy, the Courts of Appeals are also referred to as "intermediate" courts - they are above the trial level courts, but below the Supreme Court. Both the Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court are "appellate courts".

Now, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: appellate courts do not, not, NOT review or construe the facts.

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