Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition to hear an Ohio case about police searching data stored in a cell phone. While the Supreme Court of Ohio is the court of last resort for state law, sometimes our court’s decisions are appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, especially when they concern federal constitutional rights.
It’s not uncommon for the U.S. Supreme Court to decline to hear a case. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court receives about 10,000 petitions for a writ of certiorari each year. The Court grants and hears oral argument in about 75 to 80 cases. Those are difficult numbers to overcome to be sure.
As a comparison, our state Supreme Court receives about 2,000 requests each year to review decisions of Ohio’s appeals courts. Out of all those requests, we typically agree to hear arguments and decide about 150 cases per year. After reading these statistics, you can see why we encourage lawyers to make a compelling case to us as to why we should hear their case.
