Pathways to the Sumpreme CourtThe cases the Court hears come almost exclusively in the form of appeals to either state supreme court or federal appeals court decisions (see figure below). A tiny fraction of cases arises under the Court’s original jurisdiction — it hears only about ten such cases a year.
Through the process illustrated above, the Supreme Court is asked to hear approximately five thousand cases each year. However, because of time and resource constraints and because not all cases are of equal merit, the Court selects only a handful to formally review.
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