State supreme courts hear far more cases than the U.S. Supreme Court does

Evidence

Forty-eight states vest ultimate appellate authority in a single court, usually designated as the supreme court. (The sole exceptions, Oklahoma and Texas, each have established a Court of Criminal Appeals, which is the court of last resort in criminal cases, and a Supreme Court, which has the final responsibility for appeals in civil cases.) A state supreme court is responsible for the development of state law, and its decisions serve as authoritative precedent within the state court system. Its jurisdiction is defined by the state constitution, state statutes, or both. Usually, it does not enjoy the nearly total discretion over the cases it hears that the U.S. Supreme Court does. The mandatory jurisdiction of the Washington Supreme Court, for example, includes certain criminal, administrative agency, juvenile, and lawyer-discipline cases. Not surprisingly, given the more extensive mandatory jurisdiction, most state supreme courts decide more cases per year than does the U.S. Supreme Court. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 314

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to how the state-court workload differs from the federal appellate system, tying to course comparison of federal and state judiciaries. — connects to: Over 98 percent of criminal prosecutions occur in state courts — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 244; Most criminal and civil cases are heard in state rather than federal courts. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 288; The Supreme Court’s docket is dominated by thousands of annual petitions from lower courts. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1469

Broader Connections

• Most criminal and civil cases are heard in state rather than federal courts. #corroborates (0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 288