Get A: Response To Petitioners Brief On The Merits - Supreme Court Of ...

The word certiorari comes from Law Latin, meaning "to be more fully informed." A writ of certiorari orders a lower court to deliver its record in a case so that the higher court may review it. The writ of certiorari is a common law writ, which may be abrogated or controlled entirely by statute or court rules.

Values: 1case did not arise on cert or cert not granted 2 federal court conflict 3 federal court conflict and to resolve important or significant question 4 putative conflict 5 conflict between federal court and state court8 more rows

The phrase “on the merits” refers to a case whose decision rests upon the law as it applied to the particular evidence and facts presented in the case. This is in opposition to cases whose decisions rest upon procedural grounds.

Writs of Certiorari Parties who are not satisfied with the decision of a lower court must petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case. The primary means to petition the court for review is to ask it to grant a writ of certiorari.

The justices use the “Rule of Four” to decide if they will take the case. If four of the nine justices determine that a case has merit, they will issue a writ of certiorari. This is a legal order from the high court for the lower court to send the records of the case to them for review.

Dissent: If a justice disagrees with the court's opinion, he or she may issue a dissent, which, like the opinion, is a substantive and often lengthy piece of writing that lays out reasons why the court's opinion is mistaken.

When the losing side in a case decided by a federal court of appeals (or a state's highest court) wants the Supreme Court to weigh in, it files a brief (known as a “petition for certiorari” or a “cert petition”) asking the justices to grant review, hear oral argument and eventually issue a decision on the merits of the ...