🔍 The Supreme Court takes up about 60 to 70 cases per year, but this number has decreased over time.
📝 The Rule of Four states that at least four justices must agree to hear a case.
🗳️ Senators play a role in choosing and confirming Supreme Court justices.
🔍 Four justices are required to support hearing a case before the Supreme Court.
🏛️ The court cannot hear all the appealed cases and only those with substantial constitutional questions are heard.
🔄 Decisions of lower courts stand when the Supreme Court does not hear a case.
🔍 When the Supreme Court consists of ideologically homogeneous justices, there is less uncertainty about their decisions.
💪 Justices are more willing to grant cert to cases when they have colleagues who share their ideology.
🤝 Some justices have been successful in persuading others to hear certain cases.
⚖️ Former football player Byron White was skilled at persuading fellow Supreme Court justices to take on more cases.
📜 Congress has made changes to the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over the years, including a law in 1988 that reduced the number of cases the Court is required to hear.
🗳️ Senators consider ideology, qualifications, and party affiliation when voting on Supreme Court nominees.
📚 Presidents who are more popular have a higher likelihood of their justices being confirmed.
⚖️ A senator's party affiliation plays a significant role in their voting decision for confirming a justice.
📊 The ideological distance between a senator and a justice can influence the senator's support or opposition.
📚 Qualifications and ideological distance heavily influence senator's vote on nominee confirmation.
⭐ Highly qualified nominees with close ideological alignment have a strong chance of being confirmed.
❌ Unqualified nominees with significant ideological differences have a very low chance of being confirmed.
📚 US senators consider party identification, ideology, and the qualifications of a nominee before confirming them for the Supreme Court.
🗳️ Predicting how senators will vote on a nominee is often possible based on statistics.