the supream court?

Question

what are some examples of "practical guidlines" the supream court uses for hearing each case?

one example i came up with is that it consists of 9 people and not 100 like congress (if there were 100 people on the supream court it would take forever for them to get through one case)

if you have any ideas it would realy help me out...thanx

Answer 1

There are really no guidelines per se. Justices decide their votes depending on their own expertise, experiences, and consciouses. Since the supreme court was set up in a hurry during the draft of the constitution, the institution it has become can not really be traced from the constitution.

Like you said, there are 9 justices, which most of time there would be majorities for most of decisions unless justices have to acquite themselves from joining the decisions. Recentl history indicates that supreme court is usually big on keeping precedents. Take example of Roe v. Wade, the decision on abortion debate, Justice Kennedy would prefer to repeal the decision. Yet, the decision itself has become an institution and any reversals would cause major disruptions and miseries within our society, which is why Kennedy always votes against overturning it.

Also, another possible "guideline" that I think of is probably that the supreme court can decide not to take any cases from lower court and let the decisions stand.

These are just the more obvious thing I can think of. Your question is very general and I can't give very specific answers. Hope this helps.


XR

Answer 2

Well one of the most practial is that there are various other couts to get though before the Supreme Court will even consider hearing the case. For instance it has to make it through 2 other couts if it's a federal case and 3 if it was a state case.

There are also some general practices the court uses. They will often take cases in order to clarify a Federal law. The US Court of Appeals (the one below the Supreme Court) is bound by decisions made by the Supreme court, but not bound by decisions made by other Courts of Appeals (there are 11 or them). So if the First Circut says X and the Second circut says Y and the Tenth Circut says 42, the Supreme court would be inclined to take a case that would set them all straight and say who's right.

They also take cases in order to clarify what the said, or to change their mind. If they said Z and the lower courts keep saying z, the the Supreme court may take a case to say no, look, it's Z not z.

Sometimes the lower courts are just wrong as well and the Supreme cour twill take a case telling them so. Or a state law may be unconstitutional and the Supreme court needs to say so.

Answer 3

I think your question is more about the issue and not the actual procedure. Think about framing it in respect to the US Constitution. For example State Constitution issues have no place in the US Supreme Court because each state's supreme court is the final arbiter on those cases.

Consider issues like civil rights or Federal laws.

Good luck with your homework.

Answer 4

Varies.