warm-up question: pretend you are a supreme court justice…what are three factors you would...
TRANSCRIPT
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