The Supreme Court’s docket has shrunk dramatically while its discretionary power grew

Evidence

The U.S. Supreme Court sits at the apex of the federal judicial system. It hears appeals from the federal courts of appeals, from state supreme courts, and, occasionally, from federal district courts or the Court of Military Appeals. The Constitution also assigns the Supreme Court a very limited original jurisdiction (cases it hears as a trial court), but this rarely involves more than one or two cases per year. Over the last decade, more than 7,000 cases were appealed to the Supreme Court annually, and the Court typically accepted about 1 percent for review. The number of cases heard by the Supreme Court has declined dramatically in recent years. Whereas the Court decided 147 cases in its 1987 term, it decided only 69 in its 2016 term. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 369

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why did the number of decided cases fall from 147 to 69 between 1987 and 2016? Worth chasing the certiorari-pool and ideological drivers.
• XREF: connects to: Court hierarchies bind lower courts to higher courts’ rulings — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 257; Granting the Supreme Court docket discretion transformed it into a law-developing court.; Legal doctrine constrains lower courts far more than the Supreme Court — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 257 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Supreme Court shifts can be explained by either legal doctrine or judicial politics. #qualifies (0.80) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2432
• Legal doctrine constrains lower courts far more than the Supreme Court #expands (0.75) — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 257