The United States Supreme Court works by selecting a small number of cases each year, mostly from parties who lost in lower courts and ask for review, hearing arguments on them during a term that runs October through late June, and issuing written opinions that bind every other court in the country. Out of several thousand petitions filed annually, the justices typically agree to decide only 60 to 70 on the merits. The rest are turned away without explanation, leaving the lower court ruling in place.
The Court is the only court the Constitution itself creates. Everything about how it functions day to day, including its size, its calendar, and the paths cases can take to reach it, comes from a mix of Article III, federal statutes Congress has passed over the years, and the Court’s own rules.
What the Court Is Authorized to Do
Article III of the Constitution vests all federal judicial power in “one supreme Court” and whatever lower courts Congress chooses to create.1Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Article III That single sentence is the entire constitutional foundation. The rest is statutory.
The Constitution does not expressly give the Court power to strike down laws. Chief Justice John Marshall claimed that power for the Court in the 1803 case Marbury v. Madison,2National Archives. Marbury v. Madison (1803) establishing what is now called judicial review: the authority to invalidate acts of Congress or the President that conflict with the Constitution.3Constitution Annotated. ArtIII.S1.3 Marbury v. Madison and Judicial Review That power has one consequence worth understanding before anything else. When the Court decides a constitutional question, its ruling can be undone in only two ways: the Court reverses itself in a later case, or the Constitution is amended.4Supreme Court of the United States. The Court and Constitutional Interpretation Both are rare. Statutory rulings are different; if Congress disagrees with how the Court read a statute, it can rewrite the statute.
The Court is also fenced in by Article III in important ways. It cannot issue advisory opinions or answer hypothetical questions. It can only decide actual disputes between real parties with something concrete at stake. That “cases and controversies” rule keeps the justices from acting as a general policy body.
Who Sits on the Court
Federal statute sets the Court at one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices, with six needed for a quorum.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1 – Number of Justices; Quorum Congress has changed the number several times, from as few as five to as many as ten, but nine has been the fixed figure since 1869.
The Constitution imposes no qualifications at all. There is no age minimum, no citizenship requirement, and no requirement to hold a law degree or to have attended law school.6Supreme Court of the United States. Frequently Asked Questions – General Information Every modern justice has been a lawyer, and most came from the federal appellate bench, but those are norms, not rules.
The President nominates a candidate, and the Senate confirms by a majority vote under the Advice and Consent Clause of Article II.7Constitution Annotated. U.S. Constitution Article II, Section 2 The Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings, questions the nominee, and sends the nomination to the full Senate.
Once confirmed, justices serve for life “during good Behaviour.” The only way to remove one is impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate. No justice has ever been removed that way. Life tenure exists to free justices from political pressure, so they can rule on the law without worrying about reelection or reappointment.
What Kinds of Cases the Court Can Hear
The caseload splits in two, and most people only ever see one half.
Original Jurisdiction
In a small set of disputes, the Supreme Court is the trial court rather than the reviewing court. The most important category is lawsuits between two or more states, where the Court has exclusive jurisdiction. No other court in the country can hear those.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1251 – Original Jurisdiction The Court also has (non-exclusive) original jurisdiction over cases involving ambassadors and disputes between the federal government and a state. These cases are rare and often involve things like water rights between neighboring states.
Appellate Jurisdiction
Nearly everything else is appellate. The Court reviews decisions from the federal circuit courts of appeals through certiorari, which means the Court decides for itself whether to take the case.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1254 – Courts of Appeals; Certiorari It can also review final decisions of a state’s highest court when the case involves a federal constitutional question or the validity of a federal or state statute.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1257 – State Courts; Certiorari A narrow set of cases from special three-judge district court panels still comes up through mandatory appeal rather than certiorari, but Congress has cut that category down over the years. Today the docket is overwhelmingly discretionary.
How a Case Gets In
A party who wants review files a petition for a writ of certiorari, a formal request asking the Court to order the lower court to send the case up.11United States Courts. Supreme Court Procedures The petition has to be filed within 90 days after the lower court’s judgment.12Legal Information Institute. Supreme Court Rule 13 – Review on Certiorari: Time for Petitioning Missing that deadline almost always ends the case.
The filing fee is $300.13Legal Information Institute. Supreme Court Rule 38 – Fees Petitioners who can’t afford the fee may file a motion to proceed in forma pauperis with a notarized affidavit describing their finances. If the lower court already appointed counsel, that appointment is enough and no separate affidavit is required.14Legal Information Institute. Supreme Court Rule 39 – Proceedings In Forma Pauperis
The Rule of Four
The justices decide whether to hear a case under what is called the Rule of Four. If four of the nine agree the case is worth review, the petition is granted.11United States Courts. Supreme Court Procedures The Court’s own rules list the kinds of reasons that weigh in favor of granting. The strongest is a circuit split, where two or more federal appeals courts have reached opposite conclusions on the same legal question. The Court also looks for conflicts between a federal appeals court and a state supreme court, and for lower court decisions that clash with existing Supreme Court precedent.15Legal Information Institute. Supreme Court Rule 10 – Considerations Governing Review on Writ of Certiorari
Grants are rare. Fewer than 4,000 petitions were filed during the 2024–25 term, down sharply from the long-cited figure of 7,000 to 8,000. Paid petitions are denied roughly 85 to 90 percent of the time, and the denial rate for in forma pauperis petitions historically runs above 98 percent.
Law clerks do most of the initial screening. Since 1972, most justices have participated in the “cert pool,” where an administrator divides incoming petitions among the participating chambers. A clerk writes a memo for each petition summarizing the case, analyzing the issues, and recommending whether to take it. Each justice’s own clerks then review that memo, sometimes add their own analysis, and the justice votes at conference.
The Solicitor General and Amicus Briefs
The Solicitor General, a senior Department of Justice official, is the federal government’s advocate before the Court. That office decides which cases the government will ask the Court to take and what positions it will urge.16United States Department of Justice. Office of the Solicitor General – About the Office The Solicitor General’s views carry real weight, and the justices sometimes invite the office to file briefs in private disputes when federal interests are involved.
Outside parties who are not in the case can file amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs, letting advocacy groups, trade associations, other governments, and scholars present arguments or data the parties might not raise. An amicus brief supporting a cert petition must be filed within 30 days after the case lands on the docket; a merits-stage brief has to be filed within seven days after the supported party files its own brief.17Legal Information Institute. Supreme Court Rule 37 – Brief for an Amicus Curiae Federal and state governments can file without permission. Everyone else needs consent from all parties or has to ask the Court for leave.
The Term Calendar
By statute, each term begins on the first Monday in October.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2 – Terms of Court Oral arguments run from October through April. The justices spend the remaining months finishing opinions, and most terms wrap up by late June or early July.19Supreme Court of the United States. The Court and Its Procedures The biggest decisions often come down in the last weeks, sometimes in rapid succession.
During argument months, the Court alternates between “sittings” of about two weeks (when oral arguments are heard and opinions released) and “recesses” (reserved for writing opinions and reviewing new petitions). On non-argument days, the justices hold private conferences to discuss pending cases and vote on cert petitions.
Oral Argument and the Decision Process
Once a case is granted, both sides file detailed written briefs. Then comes oral argument. Each side gets 30 minutes before the bench.20Legal Information Institute. Supreme Court Rule 28 – Oral Argument It is not a prepared presentation. Justices interrupt steadily, pushing on weak spots in the legal theory and testing hypotheticals. Arguments are open to the public, and the Court now streams live audio through its website.21Supreme Court of the United States. Live Oral Argument Audio Cameras remain prohibited. Transcripts and audio recordings are posted after the fact.
After argument, the justices meet in a private conference where no one else is in the room. They discuss the case and take a preliminary vote. If the Chief Justice is in the majority, the Chief Justice decides who writes the majority opinion. If the Chief Justice is not in the majority, the most senior justice in the majority makes the assignment. That assignment power is a subtle but real influence over how a ruling comes out on paper.
The majority opinion is the official statement of the law and binds every lower court in the country. Justices who agree with the result for different reasons can write concurrences. Justices on the losing side can write dissents. Dissents have no legal force, though they sometimes build the groundwork for a later reversal. When no single opinion gets a majority, the result is a plurality opinion, which decides the case but has weaker precedential weight.
Drafting takes months. Opinions circulate privately, language gets negotiated, and votes can shift. A justice who was in the majority at conference sometimes ends up dissenting, and the reverse happens too. Final opinions are announced in open court and published online.
The Emergency Docket
Not every decision the Court issues comes out of full briefing and argument. The emergency docket, often called the “shadow docket,” handles urgent applications for stays, injunctions, and other time-sensitive relief, asking the Court to freeze a lower court order while the case moves through regular channels.22Legal Information Institute. Supreme Court Rule 23 – Stays
Before coming to the Supreme Court, an applicant must have asked the lower courts for the same relief. The Court will not entertain an application “except in the most extraordinary circumstances” without that step.22Legal Information Institute. Supreme Court Rule 23 – Stays Emergency orders are typically issued without oral argument, through unsigned orders that often say nothing about the Court’s reasoning.23Congress.gov. The Interim Docket or Shadow Docket: Non-Merits Matters at the Supreme Court Observers have criticized the practice, raising concerns that significant legal questions are being decided on rushed timelines with shorter briefing, less outside input, and no public explanation of how the justices voted. The volume of high-profile emergency applications has climbed sharply in recent years, particularly challenges to executive branch actions, and lower courts receive little guidance on how to apply orders that come without written opinions.
Ethics and Recusal
In November 2023, the Court adopted its first formal Code of Conduct after years of criticism that it was the only federal court without written ethics rules. The code sets out broad principles: justices should preserve the integrity and independence of the judiciary, avoid even the appearance of impropriety, and perform their duties impartially.24Supreme Court of the United States. Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States It also requires justices to stay informed about their own financial interests, including those of a spouse and minor children in the household.
Separately, federal law requires any justice to step aside from a case when their impartiality might reasonably be questioned. The specific grounds for disqualification include personal bias toward a party, prior involvement as a lawyer in the same matter, financial interest in the outcome, or a close family member who is a party, lawyer, or likely witness.25Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 455 – Disqualification of Justice, Judge, or Magistrate Judge When the ground for disqualification is only a general appearance of partiality, the parties can waive the issue and the justice can continue to hear the case. For concrete conflicts like a financial interest or a family member’s involvement, no waiver is allowed.
Enforcement is where critics focus. Unlike lower federal judges, who are subject to oversight by judicial conduct councils, the justices effectively police their own recusal decisions. No mechanism exists to force a justice off a case, and no appeal exists from a justice’s choice to stay on one. The Code of Conduct acknowledged that reality without creating any body to enforce it.