Editing State supreme court (section)

==Role and powers==
Under the system of federalism established by the [[United States Constitution]], federal courts have [[limited jurisdiction]], and state courts handle many more cases than do federal courts.<ref>{{cite web |title=Federal vs. State Courts - Key Differences |url=https://litigation.findlaw.com/legal-system/federal-vs-state-courts-key-differences.html |website=FindLaw}}</ref> Each of the fifty states has at least one supreme court that serves as the [[supreme court|highest court]] in the state; two states, Texas and Oklahoma, have separate supreme courts for civil and criminal matters. The five permanently inhabited [[territories|U.S. territories]], as well [[Washington, D.C.]], each have comparable supreme courts. On matters of [[State law (United States)|state law]], the judgment of a state supreme court is considered final and binding in both state and federal courts. State supreme courts are completely distinct from any United States federal courts located within the geographical boundaries of a state's territory, or the federal-level Supreme Court.

The exact duties and powers of the state supreme courts are established by [[State constitution (United States)|state constitution]]s and state law.<ref>{{cite web |title=Comparing Federal & State Courts |url=https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/court-role-and-structure/comparing-federal-state-courts |website=United States Courts |access-date=24 July 2020}}</ref> Generally, state supreme courts, like most appellate tribunals, are exclusively for hearing [[appeal]]s on decisions issued by lower courts, and do not make any finding of facts or hold trials.<ref name="WalstonDunham_Page_35">{{cite book |last1=Walston-Dunham |first1=Beth |title=Introduction to Law |date=2012 |publisher=Delmar |location=Clifton Park |isbn=9781133707981 |page=35 |edition=6th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jWoJAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 |access-date=26 November 2020}}</ref> They can, however, overrule the decisions of lower courts, remand cases to lower courts for further proceedings, and establish binding precedent for future cases. Some state supreme courts do have [[original jurisdiction]] over specific issues; for example, the [[Supreme Court of Virginia]] has original jurisdiction over cases of [[habeas corpus]], [[mandamus]], [[Prohibition (writ)|prohibition]], and writs of actual innocence based on [[DNA]] or other biological evidence.<ref>{{cite constitution | article = VI | section = 1 | url = http://constitution.legis.virginia.gov/constitution.htm#6S1 | access-date = 2013-09-16 | country = Virginia | ratified = 1970}}</ref>

===Jurisdiction and appellate procedure===
As the highest court in the state, a state supreme court has [[appellate jurisdiction]] over all matters of state law. Many states have two or more levels of courts below the state supreme court; for example, in Pennsylvania, a case might first be heard in one of the [[Pennsylvania courts of common pleas]], be appealed to the [[Superior Court of Pennsylvania]], and then finally be appealed to the [[Supreme Court of Pennsylvania]]. In other states, including Delaware, the state supreme court is the only appellate court in the state and thus has direct appellate jurisdiction over all lower courts.

Like the U.S. Supreme Court, most state supreme courts have implemented "discretionary review." Under such a system, [[intermediate appellate court]]s are entrusted with deciding the vast majority of appeals. Intermediate appellate courts generally focus on the mundane task of what appellate specialists call "error correction,"<ref name="McKenna_Page_7">{{cite book |last1=McKenna |first1=Judith A. |title=Structural and Other Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals |date=December 1994 |publisher=Federal Judicial Center |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=9780788115752 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GHM2S4IORKUC&pg=PA7 |access-date=11 December 2021}}</ref> which means their primary task is to decide whether the record reflects that the trial court correctly applied existing law. In a few states without intermediate appellate courts, the state supreme court may operate under "mandatory review", in which it ''must'' hear all appeals from the trial courts.<ref name="Manweller_Page53">{{cite book |last1=Manweller |first1=Mathew |editor1-last=Hogan |editor1-first=Sean O. |title=The Judicial Branch of State Government: People, Process, and Politics |date=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara |isbn=9781851097517 |pages=37–96 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ong5k8n97P4C&pg=PA53 |access-date=5 October 2020 |chapter=Chapter 2, The Roles, Functions, and Powers of State Courts}}</ref>  This was the case, for example, in Nevada prior to 2014.<ref>Valerie Miller, "Judges renew their call for appeals court," ''Las Vegas Business Press'' 19, no. 3 (January 21, 2002): 1.</ref> For certain categories of cases, many state supreme courts that otherwise have discretionary review operate under mandatory review, usually with regard to cases involving the interpretation of the state constitution or [[capital punishment]].<ref name="Manweller_Page53" />

One of the informal traditions of the American legal system is that all litigants are entitled to at least one appeal after a final judgment on the merits.<ref name="Oakley_Page_28">{{cite book |last1=Oakley |first1=John B. |last2=Amar |first2=Vikram D. |author2-link=Vikram Amar |title=American Civil Procedure: A Guide to Civil Adjudication in US Courts |date=2009 |publisher=Kluwer Law International |location=Alphen aan den Rijn |isbn=9789041128720 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ga8WMXi4i4QC&pg=PA28}}</ref> However, appeal is merely a ''privilege'' provided by statute, court rules, or custom;<ref name="Oakley_Page_28" /> the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that there is no federal constitutional ''right'' to an appeal.<ref>''Smith v. Robbins'', 528 U.S. 259, 270 n.5 (2000) ("[t]he Constitution does not . . . require states to create appellate review in the first place"); ''M.L.B. v. S.L.J.'', 519 U.S. 102, 110 (1996) ("the Federal Constitution guarantees no right to appellate review").</ref>

===States with unique appellate procedures===
[[Iowa]], [[Nevada]], and [[Oklahoma]] have a unique procedure for appeals. In those states, ''all'' appeals are filed with the appropriate Supreme Court (Iowa and Nevada each have a single Supreme Court, while Oklahoma has separate civil and criminal Supreme Courts) which then keeps all cases of first impression for itself to decide.  It forwards the remaining cases{{spaced ndash}}which deal with points of law it has already addressed{{spaced ndash}}to the intermediate Court of Appeals.  Under this so-called "push-down" or "deflection" model of appellate procedure, the state supreme court can immediately establish final statewide precedents on important issues of first impression as soon as they arise, rather than waiting several months or years for the intermediate appellate court to make a first attempt at resolving the issue (and leaving the law uncertain in the interim). 

Notably, the [[Supreme Court of Virginia]] has always operated under discretionary review for nearly all cases, but from its creation in 1985, the intermediate [[Court of Appeals of Virginia]] heard appeals as a matter of right only in family and administrative cases.  After two other states adopted appeals of right in the late 2000s, this left Virginia as the only state in the Union with ''no'' first appeal of right for the vast majority of civil and criminal cases.  Appellants were still free to petition for review, but such petitions were subject to severe length constraints (6,125 words or 35 pages in Virginia) and necessarily were more narrowly targeted than an opening brief in an appeal of right to an intermediate appellate court (in contrast, an appellant's opening brief to a California intermediate appellate court can run up to 14,000 words).  The vast majority of decisions of Virginia circuit courts in civil and criminal cases were thereby insulated from appellate review on the merits.  In March 2021, Virginia enacted a comprehensive reform package allowing for appeals of right to the Court of Appeals in civil and criminal cases.  The same bill expanded the Court of Appeals from 11 to 17 judges to handle the increased workload.<ref name="Oliver">{{cite news |last1=Oliver |first1=Ned |title=Virginia Court of Appeals set to get six new judges after lawmakers agree to expansion |url=https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/03/08/virginia-court-of-appeals-set-to-get-six-new-judges-after-lawmakers-agree-to-expansion/ |work=Virginia Mercury |date=March 8, 2021}}</ref>