State Supreme Court - Appellate Jurisdiction

Appellate Jurisdiction

Under American federalism, the interpretation of a state supreme court on a matter of state law is normally final and binding and must be accepted in both state and federal courts.

Federal courts may overrule a state court only when there is a federal question, which is to say, a specific issue (such as consistency with the Federal Constitution) that gives rise to federal jurisdiction. Rulings of state supreme courts on such matters may be appealed directly to the Supreme Court of the United States.

One of the informal traditions of the American legal system, derived from the common law, is that all litigants are guaranteed at least one appeal after a final judgment on the merits. However, appeal is merely a privilege provided by statute in 47 states and in federal judicial proceedings; the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that there is no federal constitutional right to an appeal.

Since a few states lack intermediate appellate courts, the state supreme court may operate under "mandatory review", in which it must hear all appeals from the trial courts. This is the case, for example, in Nevada. Such judicial systems are usually very congested.

Most state supreme courts have implemented "discretionary review," like their federal counterpart. Under such a system, intermediate appellate courts are entrusted with deciding the vast majority of appeals. For certain limited categories of cases, the state supreme court still operates under mandatory review, usually with regard to cases involving the interpretation of the state constitution or capital punishment. But for the vast majority, the state supreme court possesses the discretion to grant certiorari (known as review in states that discourage the use of Latin). These cases usually pertain to issues which different appellate courts within its jurisdiction have decided differently, or highly controversial cases involving a completely new legal issue never seen in that state.

Iowa and Oklahoma have a unique procedure for appeals. In that state, all appeals are filed with the Supreme Court, which then keeps all cases of first impression for itself to decide. It forwards the remaining cases – which deal with points of law it has already addressed – to the intermediate Court of Appeals.

Notably, the state supreme courts of New Hampshire, Virginia, and West Virginia operate under discretionary review for nearly all cases. The highest courts of New Hampshire and West Virginia simply do not have an intermediate appellate court between themselves and the trial court of general jurisdiction, while the intermediate Court of Appeals of Virginia hears appeals as a matter of right only in family and administrative cases. The result is that there is no first appeal of right for the vast majority of civil and criminal cases in those three states.

Appellants are still free to petition for review, of course. But such petitions tend to be subject to severe length constraints, and are necessarily much more narrowly targeted (usually to one or two particularly prejudicial errors) than a long opening appellate brief to an intermediate appellate court (which may touch upon several alleged errors by the trial court). In turn, the vast majority of decisions of trial courts in those three states are thereby insulated from appellate review on the merits.