Certiorari
From Conservapedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Aschlafly (Talk | contribs) at 03:39, August 24, 2007. It may differ significantly from current revision.
Certiorari is a writ of review issued by a higher court to a lower court. A means of getting an appellate court to review a lower court's decision. If an appellate court grants a writ of certiorari, it agrees to take the appeal. (Sometimes this is referred to as "granting cert.") See also Writ of Certiorari.
The votes of only four out of nine Justices, not a majority (five out of nine), are required by the U.S. Supreme Court to "grant cert." and thereby accept appeal of a case.
If the Court declines cert., then five votes rather than four are required to grant cert. on a motion for reconsideration of that denial. That rarely happens, but did in 2007 in the high-profile case of Boumediene v. Bush.
