Can someone please help me with my homework problem? I would really appreciate the help!

Question

Question:

Under the Constitution, the Supreme Court has the authority to hear any case it sees fit to hear.

Options:

A. True

B. False

In my course, it mentions the types of topics that they have the right to hear. But it makes no mention of this particular question, so I am extremely confused. Can someone please help me with this?

 

Answer 1

This question may mislead you, in that the highest court does not hear just any case. Instead these cases have petitioned to be reviewed and ruled on by the Supreme Court. When a case does not like the ruling of the lower courts in the state in which it was ruled then they may petition (or appeal) to have their case reviewed and ruled on by the Supreme Court. Most often these cases involve life sentences and the highest court of the land still has to follow the federal and state laws. It does not have its own separate jurisdiction (or law books).

The Supreme Court has two choices either a 'writ of certiorari' which means that the court sees validity in the case and will review it or it is 'denied certiorari' and they will atest that the ruling was justified and finished.

So the answer is A. True in that the Supreme Court does make the decision to hear a case or not but they are restricted to the federal and state laws that are already 'on the books'.