Judicial Process

Friend-of-the-court briefs filed by people and groups who are not parties to a case, offering arguments, expertise, or perspectives to influence the court's decision

The process by which the Supreme Court decides which cases to hear, granting review of only about 1 percent of the thousands of petitions it receives each year

Rehearing of a case by all the active judges of a federal court of appeals, rather than a three-judge panel, used rarely for especially important questions or to resolve conflicts

The limits on which cases federal courts may hear, set by Article III and by Congress, including federal question and diversity cases, and Congress's power to expand or restrict them

From a lower-court loss to a petition for certiorari, the rule of four, oral argument, and a decision by the end of June

The constitutional process for removing federal judges, used 15 times in the House and eight times leading to removal, almost always for corruption or criminal conduct rather than rulings

Court orders that block government or private action, including universal injunctions that halt a federal policy for everyone, which the Supreme Court curtailed in 2025

How federal judges and Supreme Court justices are selected, vetted, and confirmed, and why the fights have intensified

The power of courts to strike down laws and government actions that violate the Constitution

How the Supreme Court hears cases in public argument, decides them in private conference, and explains its decisions in majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions

The constitutional requirement that a person suing in federal court show a concrete injury caused by the defendant that the court can remedy, a key limit on who may challenge government action

The threshold rules that decide whether a federal court can hear a case at all

The unwritten Supreme Court practice that a case will be heard if four of the nine Justices vote to grant review, letting a minority set part of the Court's agenda

The Supreme Court's emergency docket of stays and injunctions decided quickly, often without full briefing, argument, or explanation, which has grown into a major arena for national policy

The Court's annual calendar, which begins on the first Monday in October and runs through late June or early July, with alternating sittings for argument and recesses for writing