ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the primary goals of appellate courts in the United States (US): correcting errors from the trial and setting precedent for all future courts. Oral arguments are one of the few public aspects of decision making on appellate courts, and so the media often focus on these, even though most of the work of appellate courts occurs out of public view. The chapter explores the steps that the US Supreme Court uses to decide cases, including how the Court decides which cases to accept for full consideration, the conference on certiorari, the procedures involved in opinion writing and negotiating, and the role of law clerks. Political scientists use cue theory as one way to try to understand why the Supreme Court accepts the few cases. Cue theory, states that since the justices are so busy with the other aspects of their duties, they must find some method for quickly processing the huge volume of petitions for writs of certiorari.
