Judicial Procedures and Supreme Court Decision-Making Processes

Overview of Judicial Procedures and Jurisdiction

• Jurisdiction is defined as the power or authority given to a court to hear a case or over the specific subject matter covered by it.
• Each type of court possesses at least one of four distinct types of jurisdiction.
• Original Jurisdiction:
  • Definition: The power of a court to hear a case for the first time without having to go through a trial-level case beforehand.
  • Application at the Federal Level: All trial-level courts have original jurisdiction.
  • Examples of courts with original jurisdiction include the US Court of International Trade and the Claims Court.
  • The Supreme Court of the United States possesses a limited original jurisdiction. This applies to cases concerning specific issues such as:
    • Disputes where a state sues another state.
    • Cases involving foreign ambassadors (either foreign ambassadors to the United States or United States ambassadors to other nations).
• Appellate Jurisdiction:
  • Definition: The power of a higher court to review the decision made by a lower court.
  • This occurs in all appellate courts, which are called Circuit Courts at the federal level.
  • Most cases heard before the Supreme Court fall under appellate jurisdiction. Any case before the Supreme Court that is not an original jurisdiction case is an appellate one.

Types of Appellate Jurisdiction

• Mandatory Jurisdiction:
  • Definition: The requirement that an appellate court must hear a case that is appealed to it.
  • This requirement applies to all levels of the federal appeals courts except for the Supreme Court.
• Discretionary Jurisdiction:
  • Definition: The unique power of the Supreme Court to pick and choose exactly which cases it will place on its docket each year.
  • The Supreme Court generally chooses to hear between $80$ and $100$ cases each term.
  • This selection is made from the thousands of cases appealed to the Supreme Court annually. Statistics show that since the $1980\text{s}$, thousands of cases are appealed each year, with current figures ranging between $8,000$ and $10,000$ petitions per year.

Threshold Requirements for Court Cases: Standing and Mootness

• Before deciding to consider one of the $10,000$ annual cases, the Supreme Court evaluates factors beyond mere jurisdiction.
• Standing:
  • Definition: The right of an individual to initiate a court case.
  • Requirement: Requires the case to be part of an actual controversy where the individual has a direct stake in the outcome.
  • Example: In Brown v. Board of Education, early attempts to bring school segregation before the court were struck down for lacking standing because they were brought by groups like the NAACP or the ACLU. The case only moved forward when children who were actually denied registration for specific schools—and their parents—sued on their own behalf (sponsored by groups like the NAACP).
• Mootness:
  • Definition: The point at which a legal proceeding or case is found to have no legal effect.
  • Example: In Roe v. Wade, the plaintiff Jane Roe had been pregnant for $56$ months by the time the case reached the Supreme Court. Because human pregnancies last approximately $10$ months, she was no longer pregnant and could not obtain an abortion at that time.
  • The court could have declared the case moot, but it decided to hear it regardless because the issue was deeply personal and it was argued that while Roe was no longer pregnant, other people were and would have a standing in the case.

The Writ of Certiorari and Preliminary Procedures

• Writ of Certiorari:
  • Definition: A petition from an individual or a lower court for a higher court to examine a case on its merits to see if it deserves a hearing.
  • The Supreme Court cannot initiate a case on its own; it must wait for a party to the case to appeal and request another chance to argue.
  • The court receives approximately $10,000$ of these petitions annually but only grants "cert" to about $100$ of them.
• Amicus Curiae Briefs:
  • Translation: Roughly translates from Latin as "friend of the court."
  • Definition: Legal papers filed by individuals or groups who are not a party to the lawsuit but seek to influence the court's decision by making their position known.
  • These are documents used to persuade the Supreme Court on how to decide a case in a particular way.

The Supreme Court Procedure for Selecting Cases

• The Process starts with the court receiving a petition for certiorari.
• Certiorari Pool ("Cert Pool"): The writs enter a pool where they are judged by the law clerks of each justice. The clerks determine if the court should hear the case.
• Justice Review: If a clerk believes a justice might be interested, they flag the case. The justice reviews the case and, if interested, adds it to a list for discussion with the other justices.
• Discussion and Voting: The justices meet to discuss why the court should have an interest in the case and then vote on whether to hear it.
• Rule of Four:
  • Requirement: At least four ($4$) out of the nine ($9$) justices must agree to hear a case for it to be granted cert and placed on the docket.

Post-Selection Procedures: Briefs and Oral Arguments

• Docketing: Once a case is added to the schedule (the docket), attorneys for both sides prepare legal briefs outlining their arguments.
• Amicus Briefs: Outside parties file their briefs at this stage to portray their positions.
• Oral Arguments:
  • Definition: Attorneys for each side appear before the court to present their positions.
  • This is not like standard court dramas. Lawyers give a very brief argument for their position, followed by the nine ($9$) justices asking a significant number of questions.
  • The lawyers must do their best to answer these questions directly.

The Decision-Making Phase: Conference and Opinion Writing

• Conference: After arguments, judges enter a conference to vote on how to decide the case.
• Secrecy of the Conference: When initial votes are taken, no individuals other than the nine ($9$) justices are allowed in the room. There are no law clerks, observers, or record-keepers. The process is entirely secret.
• Opinion Assignment:
  • The Chief Justice assigns a judge to write the opinion for the case if the Chief Justice is in the majority.
  • If the Chief Justice is not in the majority, the most senior justice serving on the bench who is in the majority assigns the writing.
• Drafting and Circulation:
  • Justices work with their law clerks on drafts of the opinion.
  • Opinions are circulated to all other justices (both those who agreed and those who disagreed with the outcome).
  • The writing is intended to persuade justices to change sides or join the opinion.
  • The opinions are edited and rewritten multiple times.
• Final Decision: Justices are not bound by their original conference vote and can change sides during the circulation and editing process. Once writing is finalized, the parties are informed, and the court reads the decision before releasing the full opinion to the public.

Legal Frameworks Guiding Judicial Decisions

• Judges must operate within the Rule of Law and are bound to uphold the Constitution based on their interpretation of it.
• Types of Law in the Common Law System:
  • Constitutional Law: The US Constitution, the highest law of the land. All other laws must abide by its principles.
  • Statutory Law: Legislation passed by Congress. This is currently the largest and arguably most important source of law.
  • Administrative Law: Rules generated by bureaucracies and agencies regarding how statutory laws are interpreted and enforced by the Executive Branch.
• Precedent and Stare Decisis:
  • Definition of Precedent: The interpretation of law based on previous judicial decisions. Rulings on new cases must be consistent with prior cases.
  • Stare Decisis: A Latin principle meaning "let the judgment stand." It is the legal principle that judges should abide by established prior precedent.
  • Binding Nature: This is a hard rule for District Courts, slightly less so for Circuit Courts, and serves more as a suggestion for the Supreme Court.

Types of Supreme Court Opinions

• An opinion involves both the decision (the winner) and the rationale (the why).
• Majority Opinion:
  • Agreement on both the legal rationale and the outcome by a majority of justices.
  • Precedent Requirement: At least five ($5$) justices must agree on the rationale for an opinion to become binding precedent for later courts.
• Concurring Opinion:
  • Written by justices who agree with the outcome of the case but disagree with the legal reason or rationale provided in the majority opinion (agree on the "how," disagree on the "why").
• Dissenting Opinion:
  • Written by justices who disagree with the majority decision and the outcome of the case. Justices may sign onto one combined dissent or write their own individual ones.
• Per Curiam Decision:
  • Definition: Brief, unsigned decisions by the court that lack a majority to become law.
  • These often occur when a case is denied cert (fewer than four ($4$) justices want to hear it), and a justice who wanted to hear it writes an unsigned opinion explaining why.