What Are the Steps in the Supreme Court`s Decision Making Process

Chief Justice John Roberts switched sides during the process of drafting the 2012 Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. At the conference, Roberts initially voted to repeal the law, but his thinking changed during the majority opinion drafting process and discussions with dissenting judges. In a limited decision (5 to 4, for example), a hesitant judge may refuse to consent until he or she has read the dissenting or concurring opinions. In that case, the judge will respond, «I will wait for more writing in this case.» Or a judge could respond with detailed notes on which parts of the majority argument need to be changed to get their vote. From the acceptance of a case to the rendering of a judgment, it is the process that the nine justices of the Supreme Court follow to review a case and make a decision. Article III of the Constitution of the United States states: «The judicial authority of the United States shall be vested in a Supreme Court and such lower courts as Congress may from time to time prohibit and administer.» But what does the U.S. Supreme Court do and how do its decisions affect the citizens of this country? Trainee lawyers do much of the heavy lifting of Supreme Court applications. Each judge hires three or four law clerks — the best graduates of prestigious law schools — to read some of these 7,000 petitions and write memos summarizing cases and making recommendations as to whether the Supreme Court should hear them. Nothing is final until the majority opinion is read in court and made available to the public. Werniel says the drafting and editing process can take «until the last minute» before the statement is released. If the minority decides to write a dissenting opinion, these drafts are also circulated to the other judges. The author of the majority opinion often addresses the arguments advanced in the dissenting opinion through footnotes that are added to later versions of the majority opinion.

The drafting process could drag on for weeks or even months as all the judges get involved and determine their final opinion. If a judge agrees with the outcome of the case, but not with the majority`s reasoning, he or she may issue a concurring opinion. Each judge may issue a separate dissenting opinion. In the event of a tie, the decision of the lower court remains valid. This may be the case if one of the nine judges is not involved in a case for any reason (for example, if a seat is vacant or if a judge has had to resign). During a certain period of office, the court hears cases heard before it and takes decisions. The shadow protocol literally refers to decisions made in obscurity and refers to urgent orders and summary decisions outside of the court`s main files for litigation. In 2015, a law professor at the University of Chicago gave his name to the shadow protocol, but it`s been around for decades.

How long do you argue before the Supreme Court? Typically, each party has 30 minutes of reasoning to convince judges that their interpretation of the law is correct. Almost all the cases judges hear are reviews of the decisions of other courts – there are no jurors or witnesses. Judges consider the records given to them, including the decisions of the lower courts for each stage of a case, the evidence and arguments presented to them in their final decision. For all cases contested before the Supreme Court, there are two parties: an «applicant» and a «defendant». The plaintiff is the party who appeals the decision of the lower court and the defendant is the party who wishes to uphold the decision. Dissatisfied with the trial court`s decision, Mr. Lyon appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, one of thirteen federal courts of appeals that hear appeals from federal district courts. A panel of three randomly appointed judges reviewed the case and upheld the district court`s decision that the zoo cannot be held accountable for its actions because, in publishing the results of the audit, it had simply been trying to fulfill its obligation not to discriminate under the Civil Rights Act. On days when the Court of Justice presents oral proceedings, a decision may be given before oral argument is heard. During May and June, the Court of Justice meets every Monday at 10 a.m. to deliver advisory opinions.

During the last week of the semester, additional days may be called «opinion days». Supreme Court justices hear oral arguments and decide cases that have been granted certiorari. These are usually controversial cases brought before lower courts of appeal. The court receives between 7,000 and 8,000 applications per quarter and hears oral arguments in about 80 cases. At the end of the hearing, the judges must rule on the case. That is what they do at what is called the Conference of Judges. When the Court meets, two conferences per week are scheduled – one on Wednesday afternoon and one on Friday afternoon. At their conference on Wednesday, the judges will discuss the cases that were heard on Monday. At their Friday conference, they discuss the cases that will be heard on Tuesday and Wednesday.

If the Court is not sitting, there is no conference on Wednesday. The court announces its decision in Lyon v. Animal House Zoo in open court. Here, the court issues an opinion in which it overturns the decision of the 2nd district and explains its reasons for the decision that on the 2nd. The General Court held that the Court had not ruled in favour of the zoo and should have ruled in favour of Mr Lyon instead. (Alternatively, the court could have upheld the case and ruled that the 2nd District was right and the zoo should not be held responsible, or it could have overturned the 2nd District`s decision, annulled it, and withdrawn the case, and ordered the 2nd District to try it based on theories, evidence, or arguments, which he had not yet taken into account.) The Constitution provides that the Supreme Court has jurisdiction in the first instance and on appeal. Jurisdiction at first instance means that the Supreme Court is the first and only court to hear a case. The Constitution limits initial jurisdiction to cases involving disputes between states or disputes between ambassadors and other high-ranking ministers. Appellate jurisdiction means that the court has the power to review decisions of lower courts. Most cases heard by the Supreme Court are appeals by lower courts. After the filing of the first claims, the plaintiff and the defendant may file briefs of shorter length corresponding to the respective position of the other party. If not directly involved in the matter, the U.S.

government, represented by the Attorney General, may file a brief on behalf of the government. With the court`s permission, groups that have no vested interest in the outcome of the case, but are nonetheless interested in it, can file a so-called amicus curiae (Latin for «friend of the court») in which they set out their own arguments and recommendations for deciding the case. At this stage, Mr. Lyon must decide whether to apply to the Supreme Court for a review of the decision of the 2nd judicial district or whether to request a new hearing by the three judges or by all the judges of the 2nd district. Mr. Lyon decided to request a new hearing for all judges in the 2nd District, known as bench review, but the court rejected his request. To illustrate the terms and concepts you will often encounter in Supreme Court discussions, we have followed an imaginary Supreme Court case throughout the judicial process. This chapter deals with the Supreme Court`s decision-making process. Topics include case selection, frequency of certiorari issuance, rule of four, interval between granting of certiorari and oral arguments, judicial conference, draft opinion, majority opinion, and announcement of decision. «People change their minds about what they think,» the late Justice Ruth Bade Ginsberg told CNN in 2012. «So it`s nothing out of the ordinary, and that`s how it should work. We are convincing each other and then the public.

All opinions of the Court of Justice are normally delivered on the last day of the Court`s term of office (the day in late June/early July when the Court is suspended for the summer). With the exception of this time limit, there are no rules on when decisions must be made. As a general rule, unanimous decisions are published earlier than those with concurring and dissenting opinions. Although some unanimous decisions are taken as early as December, some controversial opinions, even if they are heard in October, cannot be announced until the last day of the mandate. The designated judges then draft and circulate notices explaining the reasons for their decision. The time it takes to complete an advisory opinion depends on several factors, including the division of judges, the judge writing the opinion, and the court`s timeline. Generally, all cases are decided when the court takes a summer break in late June or early July. Parties who are not satisfied with a lower court`s decision must go to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case. The main way to ask the court to review is to ask the court to issue a writ of certiorari. This is a request that the Supreme Court orders a lower court to send the case file for review. The Court is generally not required to hear these cases, and it usually does so only if the case may be of national importance, harmonize conflicting decisions in the federal courts and/or have precedential value.