Original Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court

I’ve got my work cut out for me on this one and, as an upfront disclaimer, everything is going to oversimplified.

Let’s start with the basics. Contrary to common opinion, NOBODY has the right to have their case heard by the Supreme Court. In fact, the vast majority of cases appealed to the Supreme Court are not heard at all. The Supreme Court doesn’t need to give reasons either. It can simply say “We aren’t going to hear this case.” That is what they did with the Pennsylvania case a couple of days ago.

Most cases arrive at the Supreme Court having worked up the chain through the lower courts. Those cases are appealed to the Supreme Court as “the court of last resort.”

There are a very few cases that may actually begin at the Supreme Court, and that’s what we’re talking about here. Most often, these cases are disputes between the states. These are rare and have usually concerned water or fishing rights.

So here we go with the Texas case. I’m not going to get into the merits of the case at this point; just state where we are in the process. We are at the “Petition the Court” stage where Texas is asking the Court to consider hearing the case. As is typical, the Court asked for briefs that address the sole issue of “should we even bother with hearing this case?” Briefs on this extremely narrow issue are being filed by the Petitioner (Texas) and all of the defendants. Additional briefs are also being allowed by other parties who, though not named in the suit, have an opinion on whether or not the case should be heard. These are called amicus or “friend of the court” briefs.

Seventeen states have joined together in support of the Texas motion to hear the case. This does NOT mean that they agree with the merits of the case, in spite of what you may be hearing or reading – and you will be hearing that A LOT. All this brief is saying is that the question presented is worth hearing.

The court has a variety of options once these briefs have been filed. That is a topic for another day. [Written December 9, 2020]