Demystifying the U.S. Supreme Court's cert granted process

Each year, a small crop of highly credentialed recent law school graduates arrives at the U.S. Supreme Court to serve as law clerks for the nine justices. One significant duty that these clerks perform is analyzing whether petitions for writ of certiorari — written arguments asking the Court to accept a case for review on the merits — are meritorious and should be granted.

Eight of the nine current justices — everyone other than John Paul Stevens — participate in what is known colloquially as the “cert pool.” The law clerks for those eight justices are each randomly assigned cert petitions which they analyze and evaluate in a memorandum that describes what the case is about, what the arguments are for and against review, and what action the law clerk recommends the Court take on the request for review on the merits. A particular law clerk’s cert pool memo is distributed not only to the law clerk’s own Justice but also to the other seven Justices who participate in the pooling arrangement.