Isn't the difference here that Federal courts can't create law, only rule on constitutional matters. Common law (state and local courts) can create "laws".
There are some exceptions to this where federal laws have likely overreached the framers intentions, and then federal courts had to rule on a matter pertaining to that law.
>Isn't the difference here that Federal courts can't create law, only rule on constitutional matters. Common law (state and local courts) can create "laws".
Uh, no. This is just completely incorrect. Things like reasonable suspicion are standards created by federal courts that have the force of law (see Terry v Ohio). The logic is based on the 4th amendment, but the standard was created by the justices.
District courts can't really create laws since it's not binding on any other court. Appeals courts do all the time, in fact one of the easiest ways to get something to the supreme court is to have a split between the circuits because that creates different law in different parts of the country.
> Isn't the difference here that Federal courts can't create law, only rule on constitutional matters.
Federal courts aren't limited to ruling on Constitutional issues—cases that are purely state law can be in federal court jurisdiction, e.g., because of diversity of citizenship of the parties, and any federal law issue, not just an issue of the Constitution, also qualifies a case for federal court; and they create law just like any other courts (only with broader geographical impact, because it's federal law.)
The federal courts can create law solely because overruling them is nigh impossible. The Supreme Court exists to rule on constitutional matters, but it is merely the final arbiter and uses that to its advantage based on case law they made for themselves.
Overruling the Supreme Court requires a constitutional amendment and this won't happen, and the court rarely does something untenable or an impossible outcome for a functioning society as it wants compliance. It tries to match a partial collective conscious understanding of a topic.
When it does act as fill-in legislature, Congress/Legislatures are capable of simply changing the law it ruled on, such as repealing the legal framework supporting enforcement agency.
The courts can also overrule itself in a future court case.
(The Supreme Court exists by the constitution, the other federal courts are created by congress and have a path to the supreme court.)
There are some exceptions to this where federal laws have likely overreached the framers intentions, and then federal courts had to rule on a matter pertaining to that law.