Legal Question in Appeals and Writs in Washington

Re: State appeals

There�s no process for a case to get from a state Supreme Court to the Federal District Courts or the Circuit Courts of Appeal. An appeal of a state Supreme Court decision goes only one place: The U.S. Supreme Court. But for this to occur, one or both of the parties has to request that the high court hear the case, and must apply to for a �Writ of Certiorari,� pronounced as �sersh-oh-rare-ee.�

Under the Supreme Court�s Rule 10, Writs of Certiorari on state decisions may only be granted if (1) The state court has decided an important federal question that conflicts with the decision of another state court of last resort or of a United States court of appeals; or (2) A state court has decided an important question of federal law that has not been, but should be, settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, or has decided an important federal question which conflicts with relevant decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. 3 Justices must agree that the particular case meets one or both of these two criteria.

If Certiorari is denied, the Court is saying that the lower court decision will be allowed to stand. Some think that when Certiorari is denied, the Court is tacitly agreeing with that decision. But this isn�t true. Some state Supreme Court cases don�t have important federal law questions and just aren�t appropriate to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. In other cases, certiorari is granted, but the Court immediately remands (sends back to the lower court) with specific directions to follow. The vast majority of �Cert petitions� (as they are called) are denied. During some terms of the U.S. Supreme Court, not a single cert petition is granted.

You�ve asked for examples of cases where a state Supreme Court action is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and relief is granted. A recent case is Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), where the Court reviewed a decision rendered by the Washington Supreme Court that grandparents had no inherit rights to visit their grandchildren. Another example that you probably know is the case of Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), where the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the Secretary of State couldn�t certify the statewide presidential recount results as soon as she did and had to wait for hand recounts. Bush filed a Petition for Certiorari, the Court granted it, and the rest is history.

On the Oregon billboards, I suspect that the loosing party will want to pursue an appeal. Since the case deals with free speech -typically viewed as an important federal question and if it�s decided contrary to an earlier Supreme Court decision, then I�ll bet that it would be granted. I hope this answers your questions. As you can see, the issues of constitutional jurisdiction can be quite complicated.