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Legal Dictionary - Certiorari

The U.S. Supreme Court gives full consideration to but a small fraction of the cases it has authority to review. With many important categories of cases, the party seeking Supreme Court review does so by "petitioning" the Court to issue a "writ of certiorari." (See, e.g., 28 U.S.C. §§ 1254, 1257, 2350.) (Some state appeals courts -- e.g., Ala., Ark., Colo., Conn., Fla., Ga., La., N.J. -- employ the same terminology.) If the Court decides to review one or more issues in such a case it grants "certiorari" (often abbreviated as "cert."). If the Court decides not to review the case it denies "cert."

While a decision to deny cert. lets the lower court's ruling stand, it does not constitute a decision by the Supreme Court on any of the legal issues raised by the case. Rule 10 (http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/supct/10.html) of the Supreme Court Rules lists some of the considerations that may lead the Court to grant certiorari. But the decision to grant or deny cert. is discretionary. Under long-standing internal Court practice if four justices favor granting a petition for cert. it will be granted.

Originally, the writ of certiorari was a proceeding through which a superior court required a lower court to submit the full record of a case for review. Under the current rules and practice of the Supreme Court, however, key elements of the proceedings below are submitted along with a petition for certiorari. (See Supreme Court Rules, Rule 14 (http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/supct/14.html).) And in some states the old terminology has been replaced. In Arizona, for example, relief formerly obtained by the writs of prohibition, mandamus and certiorari is now obtained through a "special action."

The Court's orders granting or denying cert. are issued as simple statements of actions taken, without explanation.

Retrieved from "http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Certiorari". Content is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

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