Certiorari

“ Therefore, ever since Congress, in 1891, established the Courts of Appeals as the customary tribunal for final adjudication of the class of cases to which the present belongs, this Court has, as a rule, been resolute in guarding against abuse of its closely restricted discretionary certiorari jurisdiction. Due regard for our practice and for the vital jurisdictional principle which underlies it, compels the conclusion that this writ of certiorari should never have issued.
However, if we are to review facts, we must establish and adhere to a rational standard of review. ”

“ When a state court has issued a judgment in a case where plaintiffs in the original action had no standing to sue under the principles governing the federal courts, we may exercise our jurisdiction on certiorari if the judgment of the state court causes direct, specific, and concrete injury to the parties who petition for our review, where the requisites of a case or controversy are also met. ”

“ It is impossible to presume an intention on the part of Congress to make so serious and far-reaching an innovation in the criminal jurisprudence of the United States.'
As we have before observed, the certiorari in this case is the certiorari provided for by the act of 1891, being in the nature of an appeal or writ of error for the mere correction of error,-a new use of the writ. ”

“ The difference between the two modes of securing a review, as contemplated by the statute, lies in the fact that a writ of error is granted as of right, while a writ of certiorari is granted or refused in the exercise of a sound discretion. ”

“ It is not very difficult to understand. Without question we have power finally to dispose of the cause upon the merits notwithstanding any omissions or defects found in the petition for certiorari. In the circumstances, we think that course should be taken. ”

“ We think that certiorari is a better remedy than mandamus, because the office of a 'mandamus' is to require the lower court or judge to act, and not 'to correct error or to reverse judicial action,' . ”

“ However, under the powers possessed by us under the judiciary act of March 3, 1891, we now allow a writ of certiorari, and direct that the copy of the record heretofore filed under the writ of error shall be taken and deemed as a sufficient return to the certiorari. ”

“ And it is further provided by that section that any case in which the judgment of the circuit court of appeals is made final may be required by this court, by certiorari or otherwise, to be certified to it for review and determination, as if it had been brought here on appeal or writ of error. It is evident that it is solely questions of gravity and importance that the circuit courts of appeals should certify to us for instruction ”

“ Nor do we perceive sufficient reason for awarding a writ of certiorari to bring up a more perfect record. It appears from the record before us that after verdict, and before judgment in the Superior Court, certain exceptions were sent up to the Supreme Judicial Court for its opinion, and that a rescript was subsequently sent down, overruling them, whereupon final judgment was entered upon the verdict. ”

“ But I thought then-and still think-that such a practice impairs 'the integrity of our certiorari jurisdiction.' Id., at 298, 72 S.Ct. 281. 'By long practice-announced to the Congress and well-known to this Bar-it takes four votes out of a Court of nine to grant a petition for certiorari. If four can grant and the opposing five dismiss, then the four cannot get a decision of the case on the merits. ”

“ Because the petition does not identify any inter-Circuit conflict concerning the question presented, and because the answer provided by the Fifth Circuit's published opinion is widely supported, the Court's denial of certiorari today is entirely consistent with rules governing the management of our certiorari docket. ”

“ They believe that the nature of the proceeding upon a petition for certiorari is such that, when the reasons for a denial of certiorari are not stated, the denial should be disregarded in passing upon a subsequent application for relief, except to note that this source of possible relief has been exhausted. ”

“ We think it the better, as well as the more regular practice, to await the return of the court below before taking any action on the merits. The certiorari will, therefore, be now awarded. Upon the coming in of the return the case will be regularly before us ”

“ I would deny the petition for a writ of certiorari. I certainly would not summarily reverse and make our own finding of fact without even giving the State the opportunity to brief and argue the question. ”

“ While we do not impose on persons unlearned in the law the same high standards of the legal art that we might place on the members of the legal profession, we think that these issues are too far afield from the questions that petitioner raised in the courts below and in his petition for certiorari for them properly to be before us. ”

“ By the sixth section of the judiciary act, the circuit court of appeals is not permitted to certify the whole case to us, though we may require that to be done when questions are certified, or may bring up by certiorari any case in which the decision of that court would otherwise be final. ”

“ Because of this factual similarity and the identical nature of the problems involved in granting certiorari, we ordered the cases consolidated for argument and now deem it sufficient to file one opinion. In addition, as the facts are simple, we think it sufficient to recite but one of the cases in detail, noting whatever slight variations exist in the others. ”

“ The statement for the Court by Mr. Chief Justice Taft in the Coty case indicates the strict criteria governing certiorari policy observed by the Court, except occasionally in FELA cases, previous to the Act of 1925, by which Congress put the Court's docket for all practical purposes in its own keeping. (For a more detailed history of the origin of certiorari jurisdiction, see Frankfurter and Landis, Business of The Supreme Court, cc. II, III, V, and VII.)
The vast extension of discretionary review by the Supreme Court on writ of certiorari contained in the Judges Bill of 1925, 43 Stat. ”

“ Even here, I am bound to say, it would probably be better practice for a Justice, who has unsuccessfully opposed certiorari, to face the merits, and to dissent from the summary disposition rather than from the grant of certiorari if he is not prepared to reach the merits without fulldress argument.↑ See Burton, Judging Is Also Administration, 21 Temple Law Quarterly 77, 84-85 and n. ”

“ In addition, the application for stay is treated as a petition for writ of certiorari, and certiorari is granted. Briefs of the parties, not to exceed 50 pages, are to be filed with the Clerk and served upon opposing counsel on or before 4 p.m., Sunday, December 10, 2000. This Court's Rule 29.2 is suspended in this case. Briefs may be filed in compliance with Rule 33.2 to be replaced as soon as possible with briefs prepared in compliance with Rule 33.1. ”

“ The plaintiff in error, continuing dissatisfied, thereupon appealed to the Supreme Court of New York for, and procured, a writ of certiorari to review the determination of the award by the board of assessors and the confirmation of it by the board of revision of assessments. ”

“ We granted the petition for a writ of certiorari in order to resolve that conflict between the two courts. 389 U.S. 811, 88 S.Ct. 51, 19 L.Ed.2d 67. On oral argument both petitioner and respondent urged that the judgment of the Court of Claims be affirmed. ”

“ It also authorized this court to bring up for review and determination by certiorari 'any cause wherein a final judgment or decree has been rendered or passed by the highest court of a state in which a decision could be had, where is drawn in question the validity of a treaty or statute of, or an authority exercised under the United States, and the decision is in favor of their validity ”

“ United States
The petition for certiorari is granted. Upon consideration of the Government's confession of error, after reviewing the record in this case, we vacate the judgments of the Court of Appeals and the District Court. ”

“ Whether that right has been impaired in a particular instance often produces a contrariety of views. Yet the practice of the Court in allowing four out of nine votes to control the certiorari docket is well established and of long duration. [2] Without it, the vast discretion which Congress allowed us in granting or denying certiorari might not be tolerable. ”

“ Moreover, the per curiam order in Gianfala, entered solely on the basis of the petition for certiorari, without the benefit of an opposing brief or oral argument, can scarcely be regarded as a precedent of much significance. ”

“ This is equally true of this court; that is to say, that in cases over which we possess neither original nor appellate jurisdiction we cannot grant prohibition or mandamus or certiorari as ancillary thereto. ”

“ As the omission to return the citation appears to have arisen from the neglect of the clerk, if it had been shown that it remained in the office, a certiorari would have been sent down on a prayer of diminution; but as it has been satisfactorily proved to have been lost or destroyed, it is not a case for a certiorari.
The Palmyrd #fn-s-s [1] is an authority for granting the relief sought at the succeeding term of the court in a case like the present. ”

“ Since petitioner's claim is that he was denied equal protection of the law by the failure of the presiding judge to provide the protection, guaranteed to others, of a grand jury impaneled in a manner that would insure against biased and prejudiced grand jurors, it seems inconceivable that this conviction should be sustained on the basis that the claim was not included in the petition for certiorari. ”

“ Accordingly, the appeals were dismissed; two opinions being written, one upon the original hearing and the other upon rehearing. 79 F. (2d) 703; 80 F. (2d) 993. This court granted certiorari to review a ruling as to practice that might tend, if erroneous, to introduce confusion into the law. ”

“ Application for certiorari was then made by the petitioner on the ground that such decision involved questions under the Employers' Liability Act (Act April 22, 1908, c. 149, 35 Stat. 65 [Comp. St. 1916, §§ 8657-8665] ) reviewable by certiorari under the Act of Congress of September 6, 1916, c. ”

“ As the defendant's assignment of errors, to which the stipulation and certificate refer, brought in question the sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment, the conclusion is unavoidable that counsel when entering into the stipulation and the trial judge when giving the certificate understood that all the evidence was material to the solution of that question, and that they used the terms appearing in the stipulation and certificate as comprehending not merely a part of the evidence, but all of it. ”

“ If this be the correct interpretation of the statute, we answer that the certificate to the deed in question did, in substance, conform, when read in connection with the deed itself, to the requirements of that law. In aid of the certificate reference may be had to the instrument itself, or to any part of it. It is the policy of the law to uphold certificates when substance is found, and not to suffer conveyances, or the proof of them, to be defeated by technical or unsubstantial objections. ”

“ It is as follows: 'A verbal certification of a check is equally valid with a written certification, and constitutes a contract obligatory on the party giving the certification, the consideration of which is the property parted with by the party receiving the certification on the faith of the certification.' The plaintiff in error, against whom the jury rendered their verdict, notwithstanding the instruction thus given, must be held to have had the benefit of the principle thus asserted with the jury, whether the court was right in giving it or not. ”

“ The seal of the State proves itself, and may also prove the truth of the certificate which it purports to sanction, but that certificate ought to show, in its terms, that it was affixed by some one having authority to affix it. ”

“ Rep. 983, that review by appeal, writ of error, or otherwise, must be as prescribed by that act, and that the use of certificate was limited by it to the certificate by the courts below, after final judgment, of questions made as to their own jurisdiction, and to the certificate by the circuit courts of appeals of questions of law in relation to which the advice of this court was sought as therein provided. ”

“ The certificate from the circuit court is nothing more than evidence of the finding of the jury upon the trial of the issue. It merely certifies a fact; that is to say, that the jury had so found. And the order of the circuit court, directing a fact to be certified to another court to enable it to proceed to judgment, can hardly be regarded as a judgment, order, or decree, in the legal sense of these terms as used in the act of congress. ”

“ Section 652 of the Revised Statutes declares that when a judgment or decree is entered in a civil suit, in a circuit court held by two judges, in the trial or hearing whereof any question has occurred upon which the opinions of the judges were opposed, the point upon which they so disagreed shall be stated and certified, etc. The language is copied from the act of 1802, and shows that a certificate can only be resorted to when 'a question' has occurred on which the judges have differed, and where 'the point' of disagreement may be distinctly stated. ”

“ Whereupon, on motion of the defendants, by its counsel, that the point on which the disagreement so happened may, during the term, be stated under the direction of the judges, and certified under the seal of the court to the Supreme Court to be finally decided, it is ordered that the foregoing statement of the pleadings and the facts, which is made under the direction of the judges, be certified according to the request of the defendant, by its counsel, and the law in that case made and provided.' The certificate thus ordered is signed by the circuit judge and the district judge. ”