The Importance of Importance in Certiorari

• In Event: Setting SCOTUS's Agenda

Abstract

Even though the U.S. Supreme Court's rules and the leading treatise on Supreme Court practice emphasize the role of case importance in the Court's decisions on certiorari, scholars have given "importance," and a related variable, "novelty," scant attention. Based on original data dating from the Hughes Court, collected from certiorari memoranda, petitions, and Supreme Court and lower court opinions, we consider the role of issue importance and novelty in the Supreme Court’s agenda setting. First, we discuss how practitioners and scholars have conceptualized importance and novelty and their roles in the certiorari decision. Second, we demonstrate the influence of issue importance and novelty in formation of the discuss list and on votes to grant certiorari. Next, we assess the extent to which justices, clerks, and litigants agree about whether a case is important. Then, we use a matched sample of cases to explore the factors that shape whether a case is categorized as important. Finally, we discuss our measure of issue importance as an indicator of case salience.

Authors

• Gregory A. Caldeira

• Daniel Lempert, SUNY, Potsdam