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? Arguments for the Court Legal Question Facts of the Case Parties Involved Writof PetitionCert

“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, 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 poolNOT 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

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Who has the best chance of being selected? Paid Petitions Petitions that pay the $300 filing fee In forma pauperis litigants who can’t pay the filing fee (often prisoners) ~20% of petitions~80% of petitions 3-4% granted0.2% granted Make up 85-90% of docket Make up 10-15% of docket