POS 7/8

Federal Jurisdiction is defined in what Art/Sec

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

Questions of federal law include

constitution

federal statutes

treaties

Judiciary Act of 1925

What is it and what is it’s other name?

Certiorari Act

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

compelling reasons for granting writ of certiorari

• 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

why is the court a mirror

the cases are the issues of the day

cert pool

justice pool their law clerks to consider cert petition

rule of 4

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

* today more like 5 votes

role of the junior justice

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

in conference what order do the justices speak and vote in

seninority

in final debilitations what order do the justices vote in

junior to senior

Discuss List

when a justice advocates for a case to be heard

Dead List

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

if the justices can not agree (rule of 4) they can

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

discretionary appellate review

* requires decision of lower court
* 99% of the modern court docket

mandatory

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

* more than 10 cases this decade

original jurisdiction

state v state cases

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

• 200 in nation’s history

out of the 9000 petitions filed, how many does the Court decide after briefing and oral argument

70

why petitions are denied

lacks adverseness

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

• not “ripe“

• involves “political question“

cert pool

pooling of clerks in screening process of petitions

stare decisis

“let the prior decision stand“

* enforces certainty, uniformity, and stability of the law

when does the term start and stop

Start: Oct 2022

End: June 2023

according to Justice Breyer, what are the two great unwritten rules at conference

no one speaks twice before everyone speaks once

tomorrow is another day

amicus curiae brief

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

SG Solicitor General’s Office

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

SG tactical advantage

* 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

SG is often referred to as

the court’s nine and half member

what number of SG petitions are granted

70%

what day does the supreme court here first oral argument of the term?

the first monday of Oct

original jursidiction

the jurisdiction of the court first instance, or trial court

* the SC has original under Art 3 of the constitution

who writes the syllabus

written by a reporter, not affliated with the court

once the court grants Cert, what happens

full (plenary) review - 70 cases per term

What are their options to dispose of a case w/out full plenary review

Grant Vacate and Remand (GVR)

Summary Reversal

Summary Decision

Dismiss as Improvidently Granted (DIG)

Grant Vacate and Remand (GVR)

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

Summary Reversal

usually when lower court make serious error of law

Summary decisions

usually in mandatory appeals

Dismiss as Improvidently Granted (DIG)

Oops

• taking back the granting of Writ of Certiorari

• case will enter the “dead list“

Shadow Docket

the emergency docket

* substantive emergency actions decided outside the court’s ordinary process
* requires a request for fast action bc of an emergency

is the shadow docket new?

in a way

* used to only grant emergency in death penalty cases
* 2014, when the trial courts began granting more nationwide injunctions

how many shadow dockets did Trump request/get heard

28/41 times

Today’s “Circuit Riding“

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

whats the fuss about Shadow Docket (disliked)

decisions lack process and transparency

they are consequential

they are inconsistent

Gideon v Wainright

established the right to counsel for indigent in all felony cases

litigants

* 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

Political Litigations of the Court

NAACP Legal Defense Fund

• Thurgood Marshall

ACLU

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg

DC v. Heller

• Robert Levy

Students for Fain Admission v. Harvard & UNC

• Edward Blum

At what point in the decision making process do the justice’s votes on cases become final

when the justices agree the opinion is final

What factor is not important to the justices on granting a petition

whether the SC decision will be popular

According to Rehnquist, which is not a main function of the SC

Deciding emergency motions

scheduling process

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

Arguments

Months/ cases/ frequence

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

* 2 cases a day
* 6 days a week

Purpose of Oral Argument

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

The current time limits for oral argument were set in the 1970s, since the 1970 how much time is each side typically allotted to argue their case

30 mins

why does the court sometimes hear oral arguments in an expedited fashion

when the case is about pressing info

* serious unconstitutional actions
* elections

Who argued Dartmouth College v Woodward and Gibbons v. Ogdens before the SC

Daniel Webster

according to Sotomayor, what are the two purposes of oral argument

for lawyers to clarify misunderstandings

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

According to Kagan, what is the point of justices questions?

they are making points to their colleagues

According to Breyer, what % of cases does oral argument change the result

“significant“

more than 5%

less than 10-15%

file printed briefs

since 1829

* rule 33

petitioners

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

Respondent

the party who won in the lower court (angry)

white

petition of cert

orange

respondent’s oppoosition to petition for cert

tan

petitioner’s reply breifs

blue

petitioner’s briefs on merits

red

respondents brief on the merits

yellow

petitioner’s reply briefs on the merits

green

by amici (friends of the court)

belva lockwood

first women to argue in SC

* in the 1800s

Today male to female arugments

male: 132

female: 40

bench shape

straight bench: justices would interrupt each other

Burger bent the bench

hot bench

bf covid, interrupting each other, consistently asking more questions

oral argument etiquette

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

Oral Arguments during covid

phone calls

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

After covid

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