The Workings of the U.S. Supreme Court

The highest court in the nation is located in Washington, D.C., and is known as The Supreme Court of the United States. It is also the only federal court that is mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, "The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court." Despite the Supreme Court being mentioned is that one line of the Constitution, the workings of the court, such as make-up and organization is not mentioned.

In 1789 the Judiciary Act set the size of the court at six with a hierarchy of one Chief Justice and fix associate Justices. However, the court continued to grow in size and reaches almost as many as ten Justices. The Judiciary Act of 1869 limited the amount of Justices to nine to avoid the court from continuing to grow. To this day, the Judiciary Act of 1869 remains in tact as there are still only nine Justices.

The Supreme Court receives approximately 10,000 petitions a year. Since the Supreme Court receives so many cases a year how do they decide which cases to take? The Justices use the "Rule of Four" to make the verdict on whether or not to continue with the case: if four of the nine justices feel the case has value, a writ of certiorari will be issued. Most petitions are denied and do not make it to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court hears about 75 to 85 cases a year.

These cases are more likely to affect the entire country rather than just the individuals involved with the goal of clarifying legal issues that have a large constitutional impact. Most of the Supreme Court's cases come from lower federal courts, and not from state courts when the appeal involves the U.S. Constitution.