Article III of the Constitution Establishes Supreme Court in which the judicial power of the United States is Vested Life Tenure or “good behavior” for Judges Such Inferior courts as Congress may choose to establish Original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court

Jurisdiction Original – Appellate The Court’s Authority to hear disputes and determine facts Appellate Power to review or revise a lower court decision The Supreme Court has both Original and Appellate Jurisdiction The Main Source of the Supreme Court Case Load is their Appellate Jurisdiction

Federal Court Structure Three levels of courts District Courts where cases go to trial Over 94 district courts with over 678 active judges Senatorial Courtesy Over 325,000 cases judge rules on legal matters jury decides the facts Circuit Courts, hears appeals “as of right” Try to correct errors of law or procedure No New Testimony Supreme Court, hears discretionary appeals

District Courts Original Jurisdiction Over 94 district courts with over 678 active judges Senatorial Courtesy Over 325,000 cases judge rules on legal matters jury decides the facts

Demystifying the Cert Process The Supreme Court “is not and has never been primarily concerned with the correction of errors in lower court decisions.” - Chief Justice Vinson

The Court’s Primary Role To resolve conflicts in lower courts, interpret the constitution, laws and treaties of the United States In other words: “To secure the national rights and uniformity of judgments” John Rutledge at the Constitutional Convention

Writ of Certiorari The Supreme Court is mainly an APPELATE COURT If you want the Supreme Court to review your court case, you will need to have the supreme court grant you a WRIT OF CERTIORARI An order issued by a higher court to a lower court to send up the record of a case for review.

Original Jurisdiction ~ 95 cases are granted a Writ of Cert each year Original Jurisdiction ~80% of cases accepted come from federal system <1% of cases accepted are original jurisdiction U.S. Supreme Court U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: 12 circuits + Federal Circuit State Supreme Court – highest state court Intermediate Appeals Court U.S. District Court – 94 districts Federal Trials Trial Courts – municipal or county Local Trials FEDERAL: 1 million cases/yr STATES: 30 million cases/yr

DC Fed.

Role of the Clerks Clerks do many things in the Supreme Court, however, the main thing they do is reduce the number of petitions that Supreme Court Justices must consider. 10,000 cases are referred to the Supreme Court each year Supreme Court justices only look at about 200

Cert: The Numbers ~80 cases 1% of all petitions! ~6,000 IFP Petitions ~6 IFP cases (0.1% of IFP petitions granted) ~75 paid cases (4% of paid petitions granted) ~6,000 IFP Petitions ~2,000 paid Petitions

Cert Pool = = IN the pool NOT in the pool Roberts (Vacant) Kennedy Sotomayor Thomas Ginsburg Breyer Kagan 4 clerks x 8 justices = 32 law clerks read 8,000 petitions Each clerk reads and writes a memo on 250 petitions/yr Alito 4 clerks x 1 justice = 4 law clerks read 8,000 petitions = =

“Discuss Lists” The Chief Justice generates a discuss list, based on memos prepared by clerks. Other justices may add to the list. All cases generated by Solicitor General (#4 in Justice Dept) are automatically discussed So are all Capital Cases (no such thing as a “frivolous case” here)

The Rule of Four If four justices vote to grant cert, it is granted Designed to prevent tyranny of the majority If a case does not gain four votes, a justice may write a “dissent from denial,” but this is extremely rare. All votes are secret

More “cert-worthy” criteria Conflict exists in lower courts Important Multiple amicus briefs at cert stage Affects large number of people Unique/one of a kind case this Court must decide Sui Generis - 1 of a kind (U.S. v. Nixon, Bush v. Gore) Legal importance - (when there’s confusion in the legal system, ie: sentencing)