Supreme Court Stages

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The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States. The decisions that the court decides on establish precedent by which all lower courts must abide by when making future rulings.
The Supreme Court has complete discretionary power in selecting the cases that constitute its docket. When a party loses a case in a lower court, they are entitled to petition for a writ of certiorari, if they so choose. The losing party usually believes that there was a procedural mishandling of the case or that constitutional rights were denied. The avenues by which a case can arrive at the Supreme Court are incredibly diverse: as long as the case involves a question of federal law or satisfies any Article III jurisdictional requirement, then the Court …show more content…
This stage is the only visible part of the process that the justices take in reaching their final decision. It begins in October and ends in April, and the arguments are only heard for two weeks in each month. The Court sits on the bench for two hours on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the weeks that the Court is in session. It is important to note that in past sessions of the Court, a time limit did not exist, and lawyers would go on for hours in attempts to try and argue their case. The Court shortened the allotted time for the sake of efficiency.. Undoubtedly, oral arguments can be a very stressful time for the lawyers attempting to argue their side. The justices have free reign to interject with questions as they see necessary. This demands extensive preparation if counsel wishes to influence the justices. The oral argument stage is very important, as it is the one time that the justices are together, attempting to get their questions answered by the two sides of the parties. Most of the time they already have a tentative decision in their mind, but the oral argument can either solidify the decision or cause the justices to question their previous decision. After hearing the oral arguments, they proceed to draw their final …show more content…
For the arguments heard on Tuesday and Wednesday, the justices discuss and vote on Friday of the same week. The Justices congregate and discuss in the conference room, which is next door to the Chambers of the Chief Justice. The seating is arranged by seniority, with the chief Justice at one end of the table and the senior associate justice at the other end of the table. Conference strictly consists of the Justices, no law clerks or other staff members are allowed inside while the justices are deliberating. Conference times are not only used for discussing the cases heard earlier in the week, but also to vote on cert petitions. Starting with the chief justice, each justice will discuss the cases they believe should be considered and explain their reason for doing so. The other justices, after hearing the explanation will vote yes or no. If there are enough votes to grant the petition, consistent with the rule of four, then the case is taken. The cases that have already been argued are a bit more complicated and demanding in conference. The Chief Justice will begin by explaining the lower court ruling. The Chief Justice is allowed the most time to discuss the case relative to the other justices as he attempts to gather consensus on the importance of the case. Moreover, justices spend a considerable amount of time studying the briefs and pondering the
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