certiorari

(noun)

A grant of the right of an appeal to be heard by an appellate court where that court has discretion to choose which appeals it will hear.

Examples of certiorari in the following topics:

  • Federal Jurisdiction

    • Eventually, a petition for certiorari may be sent to the Supreme Court.
    • If the Supreme Court grants certiorari and accepts the case, it will receive written briefs from each side (and any amicae curi or friends of the court—usually interested third parties with some expertise to bear on the subject) and schedule oral arguments.

  • Types of Courts

    • This means that the Court, through granting of writs of certiorari, can choose which cases to hear.

  • The Supreme Court

    • Cases that come to the Supreme Court as appeals begin as a writ of certiorari, which is a petition to the Supreme Court to review the case.
    • To manage the high volume of cert petitions received by the Court each year, the Court employs an internal case management tool known as the "cert pool. " Each year, the Supreme Court receives thousands of petitions for certiorari; in 2001 the number stood at approximately 7,500, and had risen to 8,241 by October Term 2007.

  • Two Judicial Revolutions: The Rehnquist Court and the Roberts Court

    • He also successfully lobbied Congress in 1988 to give the Court control of its own docket, cutting back mandatory appeals an certiorari grants in general.

  • Constitutional Limits

    • The Court controls almost all of its business by choosing what cases to consider, writs of certiorari.

  • The Supreme Court and the Burden of Proof

    • Allowing a case to come before the court is called granting a writ of certiorari or granting cert.