Does the federal judicial branch passes or interprets statutes?

Answer 1

The Federal judicial branch in the United States interprets statutes. They do not pass legislation (i.e., statutes), which is left to congress (senate and house of representatives) plus the president (who has to sign off the bills, with the exception of when he might veto legislation and the congress overrides it). When people complaint about judges "legislating from the bench," they are referring to situations in which they feel that a judge's opinion is different than what the statute intended, and that the judge interpreted the statute in a certain way to advance the judge's philosophy (this is usually cast in conservative versus liberal viewpoints, but the reality of how people percieve things is far more nuanced of course). There is a debate about the extent to which that really occurs. From my experience working for a judge, I did not see that happen, and my friends did not either. But there is no question that some judges and their law clerks bring certain views of the world to their job which can affect how they analyze the issues before them. Finally, it is worth keeping in mind that it is often difficult for people who are not involved with a case to understand why certain decisions were reached based on newspaper accounts. Those accounts will usually provide the bottom line result in a way that appears newsworthy (e.g., that the court invalidated a law that protects children from drug dealers), and often fails to explain to the public the legal reasons for that decision, based on the particular arguments before the court.