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-In this petition document, the Supreme Court is asked to hear the case of a party who lost in a lower court, and given reasons it should do so
-The petitioner might argue that two or more federal courts of appeal have ruled that the federal law means two different things, and that the Court must step in to assure national uniformity
-9,000 petitions for certiorari - the justices’ law clerks (each justice usually has four) assume a major role in reviewing the petitions. They are typically recent law school graduates who have done exceptional work as law students and have already clerked for one year at a federal court of appeals
-Rule of four: The justices meet to decide which cases they will hear. If four of the nine justices agree to hear a case, then the petition for certiorari is granted, and the case is scheduled for argument

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-The Supreme Court is concerned about ensuring uniformity in decisions about the meaning of the Constitution and the interpretation of federal laws
-The justices look for several things when they choose which cases to hear each year. First, they choose cases where lower courts have decided the same issue in different ways
-They also choose cases that raise major questions about the law that will have a national impact (controversial issues like abortion, privacy, or the death penalty, as well as politically charged topics like campaign finance)
-More than half of the cases appealed to the Supreme Court each year come from people in prison who are appealing their criminal convictions

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-The Supreme Court has both original and appellate jurisdiction (established by Article III, section 2 of the Constitution
-Many original jurisdiction cases have involved two states or a state and the federal government
-The Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction cases form an average of less than one case per year of its yearly workload
-Under the Court’s appellate (appeal) jurisdiction, the Court hears cases appealed from lower courts of appeal, or it may hear cases from federal district courts where an act of Congress was held unconstitutional
-It can also hear cases appealed from the highest court of a state if claims under federal law or the Constitution are involved

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-The Supreme Court is the highest court, and sits at the top of the judicial branch
-Its function is to resolve disputes that arise over the meaning of federal law and the U.S. Constitution
-The Court tries to make sure that federal law is uniform (means the same thing everywhere in the country)
-Judicial review: the power the Court has to examine the laws and actions of local, state, and national governments and overturn them if they violate the Constitution
-The Supreme Court can decide what a federal law means or whether any law (a local, state, or federal law, judicial opinion, or agency decision) is unconstitutional
-Nine justices on the Court cannot simply issue an opinion about what  law means - they must usually wait for a trial to be held and for the losing party at the trial to appeal the case to at least one higher court
-Almost 9,000 cases are appealed to the Supreme Court every year, but the justices only decide about 80 cases each term (less than 1 percent of the cases that are appealed to them)