POS 7/8

Art 3 Sec 2: gives federal jurisdiction to hear cases and controversies that involve:

Questions of federal Law

Cases were US is a party

Cases involving disputes between citizens of different states

constitution

federal statutes

treaties

Certiorari Act

• gives the supreme court discretionary appellate jurisdiction over almost all cases

• decision involves an important federal question

• decision create major conflict with other court decisions

• decision conflicts w/ a prior SC decision

• case has no procedural defects

  • “good vehicle” that presents a clear case or controversy

the cases are the issues of the day

justice pool their law clerks to consider cert petition

court will take a case if 4 justices want to hear it

• today more like 5 votes

answers the door and takes notes to relay to the clerk after the meetin

seninority

junior to senior

when a justice advocates for a case to be heard

where the petitions go if no justices want to discuss the case

postpone the decision and rebring up the petition again in a later conference

• requires decision of lower court

  • 99% of the modern court docket

appeals statue, issues of redistricting, voting rights, and election laws

• more than 10 cases this decade

state v state cases

• what the states could go to war over w/out the SC

• 200 in nation’s history

70

lacks adverseness

is brought by parties who lack “standing to sue“, poses issues that are

• not “ripe“

• involves “political question“

pooling of clerks in screening process of petitions

“let the prior decision stand“

• enforces certainty, uniformity, and stability of the law

Start: Oct 2022

End: June 2023

no one speaks twice before everyone speaks once

tomorrow is another day

a friend of the court, a person not a party to litigation who volunteers or is invited by the court to give his or her view on a case

• represents the federal government

  • they screen all federal appeals and petitions (federal jurisdiction) and decide what should be taken to the court

• selects cases from all over the country and only takes the ones they think are most likely to win the Courts Approval

  • they have intimate knowledge of the justices

the court’s nine and half member

70%

the first monday of Oct

the jurisdiction of the court first instance, or trial court

• the SC has original under Art 3 of the constitution

written by a reporter, not affliated with the court

full (plenary) review - 70 cases per term

Grant Vacate and Remand (GVR)

Summary Reversal

Summary Decision

Dismiss as Improvidently Granted (DIG)

usually if something happened aster the lower court decision that could change the outcome of the case

• changing the outcome of a case without hearing oral argument

usually when lower court make serious error of law

usually in mandatory appeals

Oops

• taking back the granting of Writ of Certiorari

• case will enter the “dead list“

the emergency docket

• substantive emergency actions decided outside the court’s ordinary process

  • requires a request for fast action bc of an emergency

in a way

• used to only grant emergency in death penalty cases

  • 2014, when the trial courts began granting more nationwide injunctions

28/41 times

emergency motion assignments

• justices are assigned certain states, individual practice for the most part

  • if they are not certain about what should be the outcome , they can suggest the case is hear by the whole court

    • normally based of home state, but can be assigned any group of states

decisions lack process and transparency

they are consequential

they are inconsistent

established the right to counsel for indigent in all felony cases

• original “Joe Citizen“ who as the SC to fight issues of private rights (majority of cases)

  • Political Litigations (10 per yer) seeking to change the law for everyone

NAACP Legal Defense Fund

• Thurgood Marshall

ACLU

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg

DC v. Heller

• Robert Levy

Students for Fain Admission v. Harvard & UNC

• Edward Blum

when the justices agree the opinion is final

whether the SC decision will be popular

Deciding emergency motions

after a case is selected, they set briefing date

• justices move slowly, focusing on getting the case right

• takes 4-6 months to set case for oral argument

  • parties need to file briefs, paperwork, and Justices need time to read all additional docs

October, November, December, Jan, Feb, March, April

• 2 cases a day

  • 6 days a week

Justices need to ask questions about briefs and case content (only time basically)

Justices are not talking about cases together, until that time (haven’t been the 9 and that cases sense decisions about writ)

Adds to Justices decision

Provides a sense that both sides were given full chances to discuss their issues

• fair, honest, careful

  • rule of law

30 mins

when the case is about pressing info

• serious unconstitutional actions

  • elections

Daniel Webster

for lawyers to clarify misunderstandings

for justices to hear what bothering the other (in the Q that are being asked)

they are making points to their colleagues

“significant“

more than 5%

less than 10-15%

since 1829

• rule 33

person who lost, sent the petition to get there (happy)

the party who won in the lower court (angry)

petition of cert

respondent’s oppoosition to petition for cert

petitioner’s reply breifs

petitioner’s briefs on merits

respondents brief on the merits

petitioner’s reply briefs on the merits

by amici (friends of the court)

first women to argue in SC

• in the 1800s

male: 132

female: 40

straight bench: justices would interrupt each other

Burger bent the bench

bf covid, interrupting each other, consistently asking more questions

be polite, forthright, and direct

be careful about using homer

present a memorable conclusion

be ready to answer questions, don’t interrupt justices, know the justices names

phone calls

• Chief Justice Roberts would call on one justice at a time, then they could ask questions for 2 min

they give Justice Thomas 2 mins in the beginning to ask questions

then back to the hot bench

• each justices gets time now to ask a question without being interrupted