What is required for Supreme Court to hear a case?

Answer 1

A bunch of Lawyers with nothing else better to do..

Answer 2

I realize that there are many who dislike the Supreme Court of the United States. However having a small insight of how it actually works might help understand it is not an evil institution. The court does not have unfettered control of what cases it reviews.

Each year, the Supreme Court receives 7,000 or so writs of certiorari, which are petitions from parties seeking review of their cases. These petitions do not result in automatic appeals. Just because a party wants to take its case "all the way to the Supreme Court," the Court will not necessarily hear the case. Instead, such a case must pass through the Court's screening process.
The screening process begins with the Court's law clerks, who sift through the petitions and settle upon a select few that they deem worthy of consideration by the justices. Next, inside a closed conference room, the Chief Justice leads the meeting in which the Justices discuss the petitions and vote aloud on which cases they find more significant and deserving of deliberation. Voting begins with the Chief Justice and is followed by the Associate Justices according to seniority. The most junior Justice takes the handwritten notes that will be passed to a clerk for public announcement of their disposition of the petitions. To be considered, a case must receive at least four votes. Whether or not a case is accepted "strikes me as a rather subjective decision, made up in part of intuition and in part of legal judgment," Rehnquist wrote in his book, "The Supreme Court: How It Was, How It Is." In deciding whether to review a case, the Court will generally consider whether the legal question was decided differently by two lower courts and needs resolution by a higher court, whether a lower court decision conflicts with an existing Supreme Court ruling, and whether the issue could have broader social significance beyond the interests of the two parties involved. However, not all cases of significant social issues needing resolution are accepted by the Supreme Court.

The Court also receives another 1,200 applications of various kinds each year that can be acted upon by a single Justice

Answer 3

The Supreme Court chooses which cases it will hear (writ of certirori). The Court likes to take issues that the Federal Circuit courts of appeals are divided on. These can be very technical aspects of caselaw. They will resolve the conflict between the Circuits. Constitutional issues that any state's supreme court has decided wrong may be taken up also. These are just a couple of types.

Answer 4

The Supreme Court can take jurisdiction over any civil or criminal matter at any time, no matter what is pending in lower courts. They did so in the 2000 election, bypassing the Florida Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has the power to take jurisdiction in a very simple matter in a very low court - if they so choose.

Answer 5

evidence clear cut.