Discuss List

The chief administrative device by which the Supreme Court manages its caseload. The list is also one of numerous small ways in which the chief justice influences the agenda of the Court. Too many cases now arise each year for the justices to consider and decide every dispute. The Court possesses a variety of mechanisms to select the cases that it wishes to hear. Some of these mechanisms are authorized by federal law; others have developed within the Court. The discuss list, one of the internal mechanisms, emerged when the number of cases had increased beyond the ability of the justices to discuss every request that they review a lower court's decision.

The Court initially followed the practice of having the chief justice distribute a “dead list”—cases that did not merit discussion before being denied review. After World War II, however, the Court changed to a more restrictive practice. The chief justice now circulates a “discuss list” of cases he deems worthy of discussion; any justice may add a case to the list. Each case presented to the Court is still reviewed in each justice's chambers, but only those cases on the discuss list are talked about at the justices' regular conference. Approximately 30 percent of the filed cases reach the discuss list. The remaining requests for review are rejected, without further consideration.

— Walter F. Pratt, Jr..

The Supreme Court justices make decisions at the Court's conference about which cases to hear. However, not all requests for hearings are discussed. The justices make decisions at the conference only on cases that appear on a discuss list, from which many requests have been eliminated. The chief justice is in charge of creating the discuss list. He includes cases that, in his judgment, merit discussion before a decision is made about whether the Court should review the cases.

The discuss list is circulated in advance of the conference to all the justices. Any justice who thinks a case has been wrongly omitted may add it to the list. Each appeal from lower courts for the Supreme Court to hear a case is reviewed by each justice. Only those cases on the discuss list, however, are discussed at the regular conference of the justices.

Only about 30 percent of all the cases sent to the Court for review make the discuss list. The other petitions for review are rejected without further consideration by the Court. The discuss list is a means for reducing the time-consuming work of the Court by greatly reducing the number of cases discussed at conferences.