Teo Spengler earned a J.D. Usually the Court decides to hear cases only about issues it considers important, and many times it takes cases to resolve conflicting opinions by Circuit Courts. Auden’s unscalable “Mountains of Instead,” looms the prospect of a post-election Court fight over a tipping-point state recount, or even over how the U.S. Senate counts electoral votes. It involves the following cases: Any dispute between the Indian Government and one or more States. Original jurisdiction is a little like original sin. The American Prospect depends on reader support. If not, Republicans win 5-3, and if a new justice is rammed through the Senate by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the count would be 6-3 for the Republican side of the case. Don't fall into a trap here and think that because as of last week we now have a 6-3 conservative court that this means it is an activist court just waiting to get involved in deciding the election. The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill, © Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States, By Aron Solomon, Opinion Contributor If an objection is lodged, the two houses meet separately. So there’s a chance that Bush v. Gore has already happened, piecemeal and without explanation. A renowned singer lost her voice after a sexual assault. The Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction is limited to a narrow but important range of cases. Original Jurisdiction. The Congress meeting to hear the count would be a new Congress, elected in November and seated on January 3; however, Trump and Pence, even if defeated at the polls, would remain in office until January 20. The Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction applies to cases involving: disputes between states, … ThoughtCo: How do Cases Reach the Supreme Court. There is no such thing as an appeal of right to the highest court. The Court has original jurisdiction (a case is tried before the Court) over certain cases, e.g., suits between two or more states and/or cases involving ambassadors and other public ministers. Give what you can... You get the idea; I won’t go through a checklist of all the lawsuits pending. That’s, as Eliza Doolittle once said, not bloody likely. Circuit Courts of Appeal. Original jurisdiction of a court refers to a matter for which the particular court is approached first. In cases involving disputes between two states, § 1251(a) of the statute grants the Court not only original jurisdiction but also makes that jurisdiction exclusive. Inside Roberts’s buttoned-up soul, there must be a profound distaste for Trump personally, and perhaps alarm at the way he has, for four straight years, ostentatiously turned the Court into a partisan prize. 80. Spengler splits her time between the French Basque Country and Northern California. The Supreme Court of the United States does not hear many original jurisdiction cases, and recently the Court has averaged one or two per term. Parochial biases are less prevalent in these cases and, in any event, when filed in the lower federal courts, these cases can later be transferred to the Court’s appellate docket. Post-election litigation, especially after states have reported vote counts, may center on this deeply flawed statute. Copyright 2020 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. Such petitions are frequently denied, sometimes because the Court believes that a matter between states is too trivial (e.g., whether state universities breached a contract to play football) or, conversely, when the Court considers that the subject matter is too broad or unmanageable (e.g., issues of interstate water or air pollution) or simply because the Court is not ready to hear the matter. That lawsuit might make the case that the Electoral Count Act itself is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, the final stop in the appeals process. The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction to issue extraordinary writs. (In a fifth case, from Rhode Island, the state government itself was behind the proposed change, and the Court allowed that one to take effect.) So what better time to review how a legal challenge to the election can make its way to the highest court in the land? Who can wonder that the Republican Party may be willing to use its bare knuckles to nail down that Supreme Court seat? from U.C. Each state has its own supreme court that is the final authority on state law. It could also be serial Supreme Court rulings in slow motion. This is basically a request for an appeal to be heard. Read More: When Does the Supreme Court Have Original Jurisdiction? BEGIN WITH THE ongoing battles over ballot access and voting. Victories for Democrats below will be easily reversed by the five conservatives; Democrats would have to switch two votes to win stays of their losses. Aron Solomon is an adjunct professor at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University and the senior digital strategist for NextLevel.com, a digital marketing firm for lawyers. So where do these 80 cases come from, and how do they end up before the highest court in the land? That message has been heard in the Republican Senate caucus. When it comes to courts, jurisdiction means the legal authority to hear a particular case. How can that be? That comes down to less than one per year. It's a nice job if you can get it. This statute provides that lower federal courts may also hear cases where the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction,: 19–20 with the exception of disputes between two or more states. You can sign up as a subscriber with a range of benefits, including an opt-in to receive the print magazine by mail. The Supreme Court votes on whether to hear the writ, and it only hears cases when at least four of the nine justices vote to grant a writ of certiorari. The first and most critical thing to understand about the functioning of the Supreme Court addresses what is really a common public misconception. Just as ultimately making a decision in this election could define this court, the justices may choose to pass on involving themselves in this process to retain their impact and focus on other issues important to the nation, including re-examining landmark cases that have become the law of the land over decades. It can reach the Court as an appeal from a Circuit Court decision, as an appeal from a state supreme court decision or as a matter of original jurisdiction. Other than the Supreme Court, the Circuit Courts are the highest level of federal court. No federal court (not even the lawless Fifth Circuit) is really likely to say right out that votes can’t be counted after election night. The grant of appellate jurisdiction under Article III is far broader, although Congress has some discretion to modify it. If Pence tries to count the Republican slates and ignore competing Democratic slates, members of Congress can object—as long as the objection is signed by one member of each house. U.S. Supreme Court Original Jurisdiction. The Supreme Court also has original jurisdiction to hear cases in which ambassadors or other public ministers or consuls of foreign states, are parties. In 2004, DePaul University law professor Stephen Siegel pronounced it self-contradictory—and others have been less generous, proclaiming it unconstitutional as well. In the United States, courts having original jurisdiction are referred to as trial courts. On occasion, when purely legal and urgent constitutional challenges are raised, the Court has also permitted suits to be filed on an original basis by states against the United States. Every state has its own highest court that is the final authority on interpreting state laws. It won’t. No forum other than the Supreme Court can act with the authority and dignity necessary to resolve what are in effect diplomatic encounters between contending sovereigns under our constitutional system. Again, the Supreme Court is highly selective about any case it chooses to hear. 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