The U.S. Supreme Court

How do Supreme Court justices choose which cases to hear?

1. Look for broad, sweeping issues

2. Look at petitions from litigants wanting to appeal to them

Then, each justice makes a list – a discuss list – of what cases they would most like to see

• The justices meet in secret with their discuss lists

• Starting with the most junior justice, they bring up cases and talk about them

• In order to hear a case, 4 justices have to say they want to hear it

• Granting cert. is agreeing to hear a case

Rule of 4

• 4 is not a majority

• The 4 that want to hear a certain case have to be sure that they can get a 5th judge to side with them

• It’s a strategic process

Cue Theory

• Realistically, there are lots of cases that come to the court and are not read or studied – it would be impossible to read/study all of them

• Justices (and their clerks) look for specific characteristics or cues

Cues

1. Issues – accept constitutional issues/civil liberties

2. Conflicting rules – when lower courts disagreed

3. Lawyers – good attorneys they have seen before have an influence

4. “Amicus Curiae” briefs – more likely to accept cases with briefs that ask them NOT to hear the case

Meet the S.C. Justices!

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.

• Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006

• Conservative

• From upstate New York; educated at Harvard

Justice Antonin Scalia

• Appointed by President Reagan in 1986

• Conservative

• From New Jersey; educated by Georgetown and Harvard

Justice Anthony Kennedy

• Appointed by President Reagan in 1988

• Moderate

• From California; educated by Stanford and Harvard

Justice Clarence Thomas

• Appointed by President George H. Bush in 1991

• Conservative

• From Georgia; educated by Holy Cross College and Yale

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

• Appointed by President Clinton in 1993

• Liberal

• From New York; educated by Cornell, Harvard, and Columbia

Justice Stephen Breyer

• Appointed by President Clinton in 1994

• Liberal

• From California; educated by Stanford, Oxford, and Harvard

Justice Samuel Alito Jr.

• Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006

• Conservative

• From New Jersey; educated by Yale and Princeton

Justice Sonia Sotomayor

• Appointed by President Obama in 2009

• Moderate/Liberal

• Raised in the Bronx; educated by Princeton and Yale Law School

Justice Elena Kagan

• Appointed by President Obama in 2010

• Moderate/Liberal

• Raised in the New York City; educated by Princeton, Oxford and Harvard Law School