Selectarea apelurilor prin writ of certiorari de către Curtea Supremă a Statelor Unite ale Americii (1) Apariţia şi evoluţia sistemului de selectare discreţionară a apelurilor

Art. III of the US Constitution establishes a Supreme Court, as well as other inferior federal courts ordained by Congress. Federal courts hear cases and controversies which involve federal law. At the beginning, the US Supreme Court had a large mandatory appellate jurisdiction, but towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, large portions of the mandatory appellate jurisdiction were transferred to the newly created Federal (Circuit) Courts of Appeals. By contrast, the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court became largely a discretionary one. Appeals before the Supreme Court are no longer a matter of right, but of discretion of the Court itself, which can grant the petition for writ of certiorari, the appeal thus being selected for judgement on the merits, or deny the same petition, which means that the challenged judgement becomes final. The 1st part of the study analyses the evolution of the US federal judiciary as well as the rules and practices of case selection by writ of certiorari. By gaining the prerogative to control what cases (not) to hear, the US Supreme Court has evolved from a classic court of judicial review to a truly constitutional court.