Certiorari

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A Writ of Certiorari - Latin for "having been certified" - is legally a writ of error submitted by a party to a case from a lower court to a higher court, requesting review of the lower court's adverse findings of law.

The common usage of the term in American law implies review by the Supreme Court. A party is said to seek "cert" almost exclusively when seeking judicial review by the Supreme Court.

The Court strategically considers and limits its docket by denying certiorari where appropriate. Cert is often denied where:

Circuit splits - or disagreements among several federal judicial circuits - often result in a grant of certiorari, since the Supreme Court has a high level of interest in encouraging judicial uniformity. However, the existence of a circuit split is no guarantee of a writ being granted.

The Supreme Court has, even prior to the confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts—been reviewing a decreasing number of cases[1].

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Dwindling Docket Mystifies Supreme Court". New York Times. December 7, 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/washington/07scotus.html.
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