29d. Explain how a case reaches the Supreme Court, including the

appeals process, Writ of Certiorari, and Supreme Court

Justices

By: John Gruhn

• 8,000 cases are appealed to the Supreme Court each year. Of these the court accepts only a few hundred each year. In most cases, petitions for review are denied, usually because most of the justices agree that the cases have no significant point of law.

• The court selects cases that it does hear according to “the rule of four”: at least four of its nine justices must agree that a case should be put on the courts docket.

• More than half of the cases decided by the Supreme Court are disposed of in brief orders.

The appeals process is that process a case goes through in order to make it into the Supreme Court.

• Most cases reach the Supreme Court by Writ of Certiorari (to be made more certain).

• A Writ is an order by the court directing a lower court to send up the record in a given case for its review.

• Either party to a particular case can petition the court for a writ. But cert is granted in particular conditions typically only when a petition raises some important constitutional question or a serious problem in the interpretation of a statute.

• When Certiorari is denied the decision of lower court stands in that particular case.