How a case reaches the Supreme Court
Two courts must usually act first, and then the Supreme Court itself must choose you: of the thousands who ask each term, roughly one in a hundred is heard.
The Supreme CourtThe only court the Constitution itself creates. Nine Justices, life tenure, and near-total control over which cases they hear.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) is not a place you file a lawsuitA dispute brought to court for decision. Litigation is the process of conducting one, from complaint through discovery, trial, and appeal.Read the full definition (opens a new tab). With narrow exceptions, cases arrive only after a full run through the lower courts, federal or state, and only if at least four justices decide the legal question matters beyond the parties. Here is the standard federal path, with the alternates marked.
A real dispute, or nothing
Federal courts decide only 'Cases' and 'Controversies': a plaintiffThe party who starts a civil lawsuit by filing a complaint. In a criminal case the equivalent role is filled by the government, called the prosecution.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) with a concrete injury, caused by the defendantThe party being sued in a civil case, or charged in a criminal one. In criminal cases the defendant is presumed innocent until the government proves otherwise.Read the full definition (opens a new tab), that a court can actually fix. No advisory opinions, no hypotheticals, no generalized grievances, standingThe requirement that a plaintiff show a concrete, particularized injury, caused by the defendant, that a court can redress. No injury, no case.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) doctrine turns many would-be constitutional showdowns away at the door.
Trial: the district court
Nearly every federal case begins in a district courtThe federal trial court. There are 94 districts, at least one per state, where cases are filed, evidence is heard, and juries sit.Read the full definition (opens a new tab): evidence, witnesses, motions, and judgment. This is the only stage that finds facts, everything above works from the record built here. Most cases end here too, by settlementAn agreement resolving a lawsuit without a judgment. Most civil cases end this way, often with no admission of wrongdoing and sometimes under seal.Read the full definition (opens a new tab), dismissal, or a verdictThe jury's finding of fact at the end of a trial: guilty or not guilty in a criminal case, liable or not liable in a civil one.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) nobody appeals.
Appeal: the circuit court
The losing side gets one appeal as of right, to the court of appealsThe intermediate federal appellate court. Thirteen circuits review district court decisions in three-judge panels, on the record, without new evidence.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) for its circuitOne of the thirteen regions of the federal appellate system. Saying a case is in the Ninth Circuit names both the court and the states it covers.Read the full definition (opens a new tab). No new evidence, no jury: the panel reviews the record for errors of law and publishes an opinion that binds every district court in the circuit.
A rare intermediate step: the full circuit can rehear a panel decision en bancAll active judges of an appeals court rehearing a case together, rather than the usual three-judge panel. Used for exceptionally important questions or to fix panel conflicts.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) when the question is important enough or panels conflict.
The cert petition
There is no right to Supreme CourtThe only court the Constitution itself creates. Nine Justices, life tenure, and near-total control over which cases they hear.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) review. The loser files a petition for a certiorariThe Supreme Court's discretionary review. Losing parties petition for a 'writ of cert'; four justices must agree to hear the case.Read the full definition (opens a new tab), arguing not that the decision was wrong but that the question matters: a circuit splitTwo or more federal appeals courts reading the same federal law differently, so it means different things in different regions. The strongest reason for Supreme Court review.Read the full definition (opens a new tab), a major federal question, a conflict with the Court's precedentA prior decision that guides or controls later cases. Courts must follow decisions of the courts above them; 'stare decisis' is the practice of standing by what was decided.Read the full definition (opens a new tab). Thousands are filed each term; the Court grants roughly one percent.
The justices sift petitions in private conference (most via a shared 'cert poolThe shared arrangement in which law clerks from participating chambers write one memo per certiorari petition, circulated to all of them.Read the full definition (opens a new tab)' of clerks). Four votes grant review, the rule of fourIt takes four of the nine Justices to grant certiorari, not a majority. A minority can force the Court to hear a case the other five would rather avoid.Read the full definition (opens a new tab). Denial decides nothing and sets no precedent; the lower ruling simply stands.
Source: SupremeCourt.gov, FAQ
Briefing & the outside voices
Both sides file merits briefs on a set schedule, and outsiders pile in: amicus briefs from states, industries, scholars, and, most influentially, the Solicitor GeneralThe official who represents the United States in the Supreme Court and decides which cases the government will appeal. Sometimes called the tenth Justice.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) speaking for the United States. Major cases draw dozens of amicus filings, mapping the decision's stakes far beyond the parties.
Oral argument
Typically one hour per case: counsel begin scripted and are interrupted into conversation, the argument is the justices testing theories on each other as much as questioning the lawyers. Arguments run October through April, audio is public, and nothing is decided in the room.
Source: SupremeCourt.gov, Oral Arguments
Conference, opinions & the decision
The justices vote in a private conference days after argument; the senior justice in the majority assigns the opinion. Drafts circulate for months, votes can move, and the decision exists only when it is published: a majority opinion (the law), concurrences (agreeing differently), and dissents (disagreeing for the record, and sometimes for the future).
Five votes decide the case; the majority's reasoning binds every court in the country. Decisions in argued cases nearly all arrive by early July.
Source: SupremeCourt.gov, Opinions
The other doors
Two paths skip parts of the ladder. State cases: a federal question decided by a state's highest court can go straight to the Supreme Court, state law itself stays with the states. original jurisdictionThe power to hear a case first, as a trial court, rather than on review. The Supreme Court's original jurisdiction is small and set by the Constitution itself.Read the full definition (opens a new tab): disputes between states (borders, river water) start and end at the Court, which appoints a special master to try them. A few statutes also route three-judge-panel cases up on direct appeal.
Stage-specific sources are cited on their stages above.