Howard Bashman, author of How Appealing. Courtesy photo Howard J. Bashman, owner of an appellate litigation boutique in Willow Grove and author of How Appealing. Courtesy photo

The U.S. Supreme Court's 2021-2022 term will be long remembered for the way in which that court's newly energized 6-3 conservative majority steered the court to the right on a number of major issues that dominated news coverage in recent week. Yet those headline-grabbing cases, whose outcomes enraged many while delighting others, were only a small percentage of the 58 signed opinions that the court issued during its just-completed term.

Last term, the Supreme Court decided just one case on direct review from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and in that instance the Third Circuit's judgment was reversed. In nine other cases, however, the Supreme Court expressly noted that it was resolving conflicts that involved the Third Circuit. In three of those cases, the court agreed with the Third Circuit's approach, while in a fourth the court mostly (although not completely) sided with the Third Circuit's approach.