Warm-up Question:

Pretend you are a Supreme Court Justice…What are three factors you would consider when deciding whether to hear a case?

Granting Cert

The Supreme Court “is not and has never

been primarily concerned with the

correction of errors in lower court decisions.”

- Chief Justice Vinson

CRITICAL QUESTION: Which types of cases

end up at the Supreme Court?

Focus On:

•Case criteria

•Effects of case overload

•Economic status

Petition for a Writ of Certiorari

Huh?

•Petition: a formal message requesting something that is submitted to an authority •Writ of Certiorari: A written order issued by a higher court to a lower court to send up the record of a case for review.

Petition for a Writ of Certiorari

CASE CRITERIA

What does a Petition for Cert Contain?

“Cert-worthy” Criteria

Conflicts in lower courts Intolerable Circuit Conflict

Important Question Multiple amicus briefs at cert stage Affects large number of people Special circumstance/Specific Question

More Reasons to Deny Than to Grant!

A petition that raises too many questions (prefer focusing on one issue)

Bad vehicle for reaching this legal issue Case is deemed “frivolous” Involves a “Political Question” Can’t be hypothetical A better case “in the pipeline”

CASE OVERLOAD

How many cert petitions are considered?

6,142 IFP Petitions

1,596 paid Petitions

77 cases argued, 72 decided after argument

About 1% of all petitions!

7,738 total Petitions

+

Statistics compiled from Chief Justice Roberts’s 2009 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary and SCOTUSBlog, 6.29.09 StatPack

Cert Overload•With 8,000 petitions per year…

•If a Justice spent 40 hours per week….

•50 weeks per year ONLY reading cert

petitions...

Cert Overload

15 minutes per petition!

The Justices cannot possibly read all the cert petitions. They just don’t have the time.

Cert Pool

IN the pool NOT in the pool

Roberts

Scalia

Kennedy

Sotomayor

Thomas

Ginsburg

Breyer

Kagan

Alito

=

4 clerks x 8 justices =

32 law clerks

read 8,000 petitions

Each clerk reads and writes a memo on 250 petitions/yr

4 clerks x 1 justices =

4 law clerks

read 8,000 petitions

Each clerk reads 2000 petitions/yr

=

Advantages of the Pool

• Saves time• Someone is more

thoroughly going over each petition

• Clerks from other chambers can mark up pool memos and give to their justice

Disadvantages of the Pool

• Reduces independence amongst justices

• The pool gives clerks too much responsibility for setting the Court’s agenda

• Introduces unintended bias into the selection system

ECONOMIC STATUS

Who has the best chance of being selected?

Paid PetitionsPetitions that pay the $300 filing fee

In forma pauperislitigants who can’t pay the filing fee (often prisoners)

~20% of petitions ~80% of petitions

3-4% granted 0.2% granted

Make up 85-90% of docket

Make up 10-15% of docket