|
Exhibit Guide Home Exhibits Introduction Founding Generation Founding Documents You Be the Judge Defining Freedom The Struggle Continues Faces of Freedom Marketplace of Ideas Censorship: What Is It? Musical Hit List Draw the Line Resources Museum Map Glossary |
 Defining Freedom > Freedom of Petition > Answer to Question 2 Yes. However, the Supreme Court does not have to grant your petition. The Supreme Court hears a limited number of cases each year. The cases usually originate in state or federal courts, and many of them involve important questions about the Constitution or federal law. When a party petitions the Supreme Court to hear a case they submit a writ of certiorari. The justice’s law clerks and staff review the petitions to make sure they fall within the court’s jurisdiction and have significant constitutional or legal questions to warrant a review by the court. After deciding which petitions will continue, the law clerks write summaries analyzing the facts of each case. The summaries are given to the justices who meet in a closed meeting to decide which cases they will hear. At least four justices must vote to accept a case before it can be placed on the court docket. If the request is granted the Court then asks the appeals court to send them any records on the case. In some rare circumstances the court will take a case that has not gone through a lower court. In addition to the cases submitted to the full court, Supreme Court justices are responsible for a variety of other petitions from the federal judicial circuit they are assigned to. These petitions are usually for emergency situations such as a stay of execution, where a convicted felon on death row asks the court to halt their execution until their case can be re-examined again. |
|
